


The Unusual Suspects

by westviewpeter



Series: Not All Monsters Are Human, But Some Are [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminal Minds Setting, Alternate Universe - Supernatural (TV) Fusion, Gen, Season/Series 02, supernatural episode tag: s2e7 the usual suspects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:35:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22890067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westviewpeter/pseuds/westviewpeter
Summary: You already know the Supernatural episode "The Usual Suspects" (2.07)Now what if the BAU was called to investigate on the case?
Relationships: Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Emily Prentiss & Spencer Reid, Spencer Reid & Sam Winchester
Series: Not All Monsters Are Human, But Some Are [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1645360
Comments: 43
Kudos: 409





	1. Chapter 1

**NOVEMBER 3 - 9:06 PM**

Karen reached for another tissue to blow her nose. She's been crying like this for hours, and for what? It wasn't going to bring him back. She grabbed another tissue. Her husband was a good man. Why did all the good ones leave so soon?

It never should have happened like this. It wasn't his time. Out of all the ways to die, her husband, Tony Giles, was _murdered_. Karen knew his job was getting dangerous. He was no police officer or prison guard, but being a lawyer can earn you some enemies, and Tony was a _good_ lawyer. Karen had noticed Tony was acting different lately. He's been more jumpy and on edge. And he was distracted all the time. Karen knew something was up and she should've done something about it. But what? 

_Oh, what am I thinking? I'm imagining things at this point, Tony wouldn't have been in any trouble._

But then why was he murdered? Was it just a random hit? The police have been hounding her all day with questions, but they all ask the same thing. Except for those two men from the insurance company, they asked really odd questions. One of them even asked about a dream Tony had, which Karen couldn't deny was weird. Karen took another tissue, but when she looked up she could have sworn she saw a figure move. She took her glasses off and put them back on, but no one was there.

_It was probably nothing. I'm just seeing things._

It was only a moment. A blink. When Karen opened her eyes she saw a woman standing behind the warped glass door in the house. Karen tried not to scream and quickly reached to turn the lamp on, and suddenly the woman was gone.

_Oh god, where did she go? Tony's killer is here for me. What does she want? Our money? Or is she just psycho? She looks psycho. Why us??_

Karen ran out of the living room to the staircase. She grabbed the phone on the cabinet and dialed 911.

_"Emergency services."_

"Hello? I think there's someone in my house."

_"What is your address ma'am?"_

"It's 421 Clinton Avenue, please-"

_Click._

"Hello?"

Karen almost dropped the phone when the lights flickered. _I'm gonna die._ Then the fax machine started printing. _What is happening??_ Karen opened the closet right next to the fax machine and grabbed a flashlight. Somehow, she felt safer. Whoever was in her house could turn off the house lights, but not her flashlight. Then she turned around and saw the woman standing right in front of her, and screamed.

**NOVEMBER 3 - 9:34 PM**

After one knock Dean took out his lock pick. Hey, if Karen's asleep, then at least Dean has a better opportunity for finding clues. Picking the lock was cake, he's been breaking into places for years without getting caught. Yet, all those years can't do anything about a squeaky door hinge. Seeing as the lights were off and the first floor was quiet, Dean decided it was safe to snoop. He tried the light switch. Nothing happened.

_Not good._

Dean went upstairs, just to check if Karen was actually in bed. He saw the door to his right was cracked open and assumed that was her bedroom seeing what could be a bed through the door crack. Pushing open the door, Dean's gut sank when he saw where Karen was, and it wasn't in bed. Karen lay on her white carpet in a pool of blood, her glasses laying next to her as if they fell off when she fell to the ground. As he stepped closer, he could see her throat had been cut and saw blood streaming down her hands.

_So not good._

A printer to his right caught his eye, and taking one of the sheets it had printed, Dean read only what could make this whole thing weirder. There was what looked like a name repeated over and over again: dana shulps. Dean wasn't sure if it meant something to the Giles couple, but it sure did mean something to him and this case.

Dean put the paper back and bent down over Karen's body. He picked up her hand and noticed bruising around her wrists as if someone had tied or cuffed her wrists tight. Before Dean could make any more examinations, he heard a woman's voice behind him.

"Freeze! Stay on your knees."

Dean turned around and was met with two police officers pointing guns in his face. He was about to explain how he had just found the body when he realized what this very much looked like. If you saw a man in someone else's house touching a dead bloody body, what would you think happened? Especially when the man is already a wanted criminal for murder. Two things crossed Dean's mind as he was getting cuffed. 

_How am I gonna get out of this?_

_Sammy, you better not get caught._

**NOVEMBER 3 - 9:52 PM**

"... although the most watched episode was Tom Baker’s City of Death watched by 16.10 million on Saturday 20th October 1979. However that episode may now have been surpassed with Saturday’s The Day of the Doctor, reportedly drawing in a worldwide audience of 70 million-"

"Reid-"

"- but that information may be inaccurate since it might just be recording a UK based audience-"

" _Reid-_ "

"-Oh! Did you know that 51% of Doctor Who's stories have been set in the future while 23% have been set in the past? It turns out Earth has been the most popular location with 47% of stories set on the planet while another 33% of stories have been set in alien worlds, 16% on spacecraft or space stations and 4% on 'other realms'-"

"REID!" 

"Yeah Morgan?"

Derek sighed when Reid finally stopped talking. "Reid, listen, I love you, but I really gotta finish this report and I can't concentrate with you rambling Doctor Who statistics in my ear."

They both heard Emily snicker on the other side of the desk divider but both agents ignored her. 

"Don't you have your reports to finish?" asked Morgan, looking at Reid who was sitting on the empty desk next to his.

Reid said nothing as he took a sip from his coffee.

Morgan sighed, "You finished them, didn't you?" Sometimes Reid's ability to read 20,000 words per minute can get to him.

"Actually no," answered Reid. "And you won't be finishing yours either."

Morgan was confused now. "Why's that?"

"We just got another case," Emily interjected. She stood up and headed towards the coffee machine.

"What? How do you know? Did Hotch email everyone but me?"

Reid got down from the desk and nodded up to Hotch's office. "Hotch got a phone call and stayed on for 12 minutes and 32 seconds. After he hung up he rushed to JJ's office and talked to her, most likely about his phone call. Now he and JJ are setting up in the briefing room and will probably call for us any second. Hotch most likely sent Garcia an email after his phone call so she can set up a presentation."

Morgan took a second to absorb what Reid just said. "You got that while saying all those facts to me about Doctor Who?"

A mischievous grin spread on Reid's face, giving away that he was doing all that to Morgan just to mess with him. Reid shrugged, "I'm bored."

"And caffeinated," added Emily as she made her way back to her desk with a full cup of coffee.

All three turned as they heard the doors to the bullpen open. "Round table now, guys!" Garcia walked as quickly as she could with her bright yellow heels which complimented her black and yellow polkadot dress.

When everyone was settled in their seats, Garcia started the presentation. "Baltimore, Maryland. Anthony and Karen Giles were both murdered, almost two days apart. Anthony was first killed in his office and then Karen in her bedroom. Both victim's throats were slashed and left for dead." Garcia's voice turned sour at that last part. She was never good with anything graphic.

Photos of the couple's bodies were projected on the screen, throats cut just like Garcia said.

"Well, the bodies weren't tampered with post mortem," Rossi pointed out. 

"It could've been mission oriented, maybe the unsub just wanted to get the job done," added Morgan, "Garcia, what were their occupations?"

"Tony was a lawyer and Karen was unemployed," she answered.

"Tony could've had enemies from his job," Hotch suggested, "Maybe from a case he beat or one he lost."

"Then why go after the wife?" asked JJ. "She had nothing to do with her husbands job for all we know."

"The unsub could've seen Karen watching in the court room," Reid proposed, "it also could've been rage against anyone close to Tony, but the injuries don't seem to depict any signs of rage or anything personal towards the victims."

"Any signs of sexual assult?" Hotch asked Garcia.

"Uh, none on Tony, and Karen hasn't been looked over by the M.E. yet, she was just found about 40 minutes ago."

That received a few raised eyebrows. Emily brought up a question someone was bound to ask at some point, "I understand the fact that the location and M.O. of these murders are questionable, but why are we called for this? Don't three murders indicate that they're serial? How do we know the unsub isn't finished?"

"Ah," said Garcia, "I was just about to get to that part." She tapped her clicker and a man's mug shot appeared on the screen.

"Dean Winchester was found kneeling over Karen's body and has been arrested for questioning."

Morgan's jaw hung open. "Winchester? Like the Winchester's from the St. Louis murders?"

Emily was just as shocked. "But- he's dead. They found his body. How?"

"I don't know, but unless Dean has a scarily identical twin, he's alive and in custody," Garcia's tone was grim. "Although, Metro PD has a problem. They can't find the murder weapon or any motive for Dean to have killed Karen or Tony. Also they're currently looking for his brother, Samuel Winchester since they're known for being very co-dependent on each other. Finding Samuel might give us more answers."

Hotch stood up. "We can talk more on the way to Baltimore. I'm sorry guys but this could be a long night. Wheels up in twenty."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers! This is my first Criminal Minds x Supernatural fic and I'm so excited to write this story out!  
> The Usual Suspects is probably one of my favorite Supernatural episodes (not to mention the entirety of season 2) and it seemed like the perfect opportunity for the BAU to show up. I'd kill for an actual episode of Sam and Dean meeting the BAU, but alas the closest thing we have are fan fictions.  
> Please leave Kudos and comments, I'd love to know who's reading and your feedback! What do you think so far? What do you not like? What do you want to see in later chapters??  
> Other chapters might be longer than this one, I just felt like this is a good place to end the chapter.
> 
> Chapter notes:  
> I know CM and SPN technically started the same year, but I'd like to imagine that this is season 2 of SPN and sometime later in CM, also I know Reid's fact was from 2013, lets just ignore the year for now :)


	2. Chapter 2

**NOVEMBER 3 - 9:51 AM**

_"Oh we sweep with threshing oar, our only goal will be the western shore!"_

"Deannnn, please be quiet," Sam whined groggily from the passenger seat of the Impala. He was not keen on listening to Led Zeppelin blasting through the speakers when sleep deprived.

Dean looked over at Sam who was leaning his head on the window with his eyes squeezed shut. "Oh come on Sammy, I though you were the early bird!"

Sam decided he lost his battle to get rest and sat up in his seat. "Yeah, on nights where I sleep well, which isn't something this job exactly comes with."

"Amen to that," Dean mumbled. "Hey, we're passing the city, why don't we stop for coffee? Maybe we'll run into another job too, we've been sitting on our asses since that case with Jo."

Sam rubbed his eyes, still trying to wake up. "Coffee does sound nice right now-" His sentence was cut off by a yawn. Sam eyed the map folded on the dashboard and took it, opening it up. "Hey, where are we anyway?"

"Uhh, I think Maryland," answered Dean. "Hate Maryland, always takes hours to drive through."

After 20 more minutes of Sam trying to get his energy back and Dean complaining to Sam that his music wasn't loud enough (Sam claims he wants to keep his hearing), Dean parallel parked on the side of a city road in front of a busy coffee shop. As they were walking to the cafe, Dean picked up a newspaper from the paper display box on the sidewalk. Most of the cases they find are in newspaper reports, usually about killings that just don't sit right. The key phrases are usually something like 'no signs of break in' or 'no DNA at the scene'. Some get more complicated than that though, especially with the variety of monsters walking the Earth.

"Hey Sam! Get me a large, will you?" Dean called out to Sam who looked back, annoyed that he had to order _again_. Dean sat at a two seated table outside where he could breath in the cool autumn air.

Less than ten minutes later Sam came back with both of their coffees. He set Dean's on the table and took a sip out of his own before asking, "You got anything?"

Dean tossed the newspaper on the table. "Anthony Giles. Baltimore lawyer, check it out."

"Lawyer?" Sam asked as he took the newspaper. The headline read "Man Throat Slit Without A Trace" and had Giles' face plastered on the front page. He read aloud, "Anthony Giles.. da da da........ his throat was slit but the room was clean. Huh, no DNA, no prints." He read on more. "Security cameras failed to capture footage of the assailant."

Dean looked ecstatic. "Either someone tampered with the tapes..."

"Or it's an invisible killer," Sam finished.

Dean made a 'chk' sound and winked, "My favorite kind. So what do you think Scully, wanna check it out?"

Sam's face showed slight offensiveness as Dean addressed him as the X-Files character. "I'm not Scully, you're Scully."

Dean stood up, "No, I'm Mulder. You're a redheaded woman." Sam just rolled his eyes as Dean walked back to the Impala. 

**NOVEMBER 4 - 12:03 AM**

"Agent Hotchner?"

Emily and the rest of the BAU team turned their heads towards the man heading toward them. Hotch extended his hand. "Detective Sheridan?"

"Yes, we spoke on the phone. And please, call me Pete," Sheridan, a tall, black haired officer said as he shook Hotch's hand. He looked at the group of agents standing with him. "This your team?"

"Yes, thank you for calling. We'd like to know where we can set up," Hotch responded.

"Of course," Pete flashed the team a charming smile. "Officer Sejas can show you to the conference room." Sejas heard Pete call her name and lead Reid, JJ, and Morgan to the conference room while Emily and Rossi stuck with Hotch.

"So, how are we doing?" Hotch asked Pete.

Pete sighed out of exasperation. "We have Dean Winchester in the interrogation room, but he's a tough one. No one here can crack him so far."

Hotch gave a curt nod. "Well then lets hope he cracks with us here. Any word on the brother?"

Pete perked up, "Actually-"

"Excuse me!" a woman yelled from the front doors of the station. Five officers walked in, two holding each arm of Sam Winchester. Even though Emily knew his height on paper, he seemed much bigger in person. Younger too, and Emily realized he was almost a couple years younger than Reid. As he was being taken to the interrogation room, she noticed he wasn't struggling or resisting at all.

The short female officer who'd yelled walked over to Pete. "Found him in their motel room. Hasn't said a word."

Pete smiled, "Good work Ballard." His gaze lingered on Detective Ballard for a beat longer, then it moved to Hotch. "Excuse me, I'm going to ask him some questions if you don't mind." Hotch agreed and Pete followed Ballard to the second interrogation room where Sam was just placed.

"Hey Rossi," Emily said, still looking at the corder where she last saw Sam, "Did you see his face?"

"Who, the Winchester's?" Emily nodded. Rossi raised an eyebrow, "He was looking at is feet the whole time. Avoiding eye contact is one sign of guilt," said Rossi.

"He also looked.. sad. And frustrated. The file said he was the submissive of the pair, right?"

"Yeah, maybe he feels guilty for getting caught, or feels like he failed Dean," said Rossi.

 _Maybe_ , thought Emily. His behavior still troubled her, though. _Let's interrogate them first before we come up with conclusions_ , Emily told herself.

Hotch lead the way to the conference room and Emily and Rossi followed. Once everyone was present Hotch gave his orders.

"Alright, here's what we're going to do," started Hotch, "Reid and Rossi, go check out Karen's body with the M.E. Emily and I will start to interrogate the brothers with Detectives Sheridan and Ballard. JJ, you and Morgan go through the Winchester's files and see what you can find with Garcia. Let's try to finish this quickly, but not lazily. I'll pause the investigation around 3 if it gets to that point. I know everyone was up early today and we all need our rest."

Everyone started to go to their respective assignments. Emily was relieved Hotch was letting them get sleep eventually, but she was also looking forward to interrogate the brothers. She vaguely remembers hearing about Dean skinning all those women in St. Louis, and that he somehow escaped before he was arrested. Then, the police found his body, which is now apparently _not_ his body. Sam, however, hasn't been charged with anything major, only credit card fraud and grave desecration according to Garcia. But their paper trail does show the two brothers working and traveling together, so if Sam doesn't know about Dean's record, then Dean is a more dangerous man than they thought.

Emily and Hotch passed the one way mirror displaying Dean. There was no one questioning him, yet he had a smug look on his face. He was leaning back in his chair while tapping his fingers on the table. They approached Pete, who was watching Detective Ballard interrogate Sam on the other side of the one way mirror. She was reading the Winchester's file to him.

"Shy? No problem, I'll keep going," Ballard said to Sam, who was leaning against the cabinet in the corner of the room with his arms crossed, looking anywhere but her.

"Has he said anything yet?" Hotch asked Pete.

Pete just sighed, "No."

Ballard looked back at the folder she was holding. "Your family moved around a lot when you were a kid. Despite that, you were a straight-A student. Got into Stanford with a full ride." Sam said nothing and didn't move from his corner. His eyes were darting around the floor.

"He looks pretty uncomfortable," Emily observed. "He's too fidgety to sit down."

Ballard brought up the death of his girlfriend from a year ago. Emily saw Sam's eyes go distant.

"He's sad," said Hotch, "There were theories that Sam was the one who started that fire, but his emotion seems too genuine."

Emily looked at Hotch, "Why would we think Sam burned his apartment with his girlfriend inside? I thought Dean was the violent one." 

"Their mother was killed in a house fire the same way _exactly_ 22 years apart," said Hotch, "With this family, it seems too much of a coincidence to be accidental."

Emily let that sink in. That only added to the feeling that there was a lot more to these brothers than let on.

The three of them perked up when they finally heard Sam speak. Ballard mentioned he fell off the grid after his girlfriends death. Sam's eyes met Ballard with his head still down. "I needed some time off, to deal." His voice was low and full emotion. Emily was pretty sure Sam couldn't have been that good of an actor to be faking right now. "So I'm taking a road trip with my brother."

"Some road trip," muttered Pete to no one in particular. Emily and Hotch ignored him.

"How's that going for you?" asked Ballard.

Sam shrugged, "Great, I mean..." Sam got up from leaning on the cabinet. Emily then saw Sam's demeanor change. His tone of voice did too when he spoke, "We saw the second-largest ball of twine in the continental U.S., awesome." Sam was now smiling and showing confidence through his body language. He turned the metal chair around and straddled it so he was hugging the back of the chair.

"He's humoring her," Hotch noticed. He was right, Emily could see Sam's emotional mask as clear as day.

"I guess he's not keen on talking about his past," proposed Emily. She seemed to be right, since Sam stopped answering any more questions. After another minute, Hotch opened the door for Detective Ballard to step out of the room. Once the door was closed, she spoke.

"I _had_ him, he was talking," Ballard complained, more to herself than the other three. She ran her fingers through her brown hair out of frustration.

"Hey, you were doing great Diane. We'll get these bastards, I promise," Pete said as he was consoling Ballard. Emily know's thet they're both partners in their job, but she was starting to think there might be something more.

"You were doing well Detective. I just have an idea," Hotch said, and he disappeared for a moment. He came back with a cup of water and stepped in the room. 

Sam took a double take to who just walked in, and Emily could notice the gears start to turn at the sight of a new face. 

"Hello Sam," Hotch said calmly, and sat down opposite to him, placing the cup on the table. "I'm Agent Hotchner from the FBI. I have a few questions for you."

Sam's face immediately changed from concern to realization ~~(y'know, _that_ face Sam makes with his eyebrows and everything)~~. Then Emily saw him put on more of an egotistical expression, like he's not intimidated. "What are the Feds doing here?'"

Hotch ignored his question. "You are aware of your brothers actions, yes?"

Sam said nothing. Instead, he pointed to the cup of water, "May I?"

Hotch nodded, "Please." Sam took the cup and hesitated before taking a sip. Hotch continued, adding a hint of sympathy to his voice, "Sam, you seem like a good kid. It's not your fault Dean's your brother. We can't choose our blood relatives, I get that."

Sam started to look distant again, and Emily can see anger was beginning to add to the multiple emotions going through Sam's head.

"Right now detectives in St. Louis are exhuming a corpse. They're trying to figure out how your brother faked his own death after torturing and killing all those women. Sam," Hotch paused, "Dean's a bad guy. His life is over, but yours doesn't have to be."

Sam finally looked up at Hotch, his brows knitted. "You want me to turn against my own brother?"

"No," said Hotch, "He was already caught red-handed at the murder scene of Karen Giles. We just need you to fill in some missing pieces."

Emily started biting her lip, not sure if this is going to work. Detectives Ballard and Pete were gone at this point, most likely because of the time. Emily was paying too much attention to Sam to notice.

"Why would I do that?" asked Sam, his eyes avoiding Hotch again.

"I can talk to the D.A., make a deal for you." Sam's eyes met Hotch, but his face looked downcast. "Dean has no way out of this, but you can get on with your life."

Sam started fidgeting again and looked around the room. Emily thought he was trying to keep himself from crying, and she couldn't blame him. Going against his brother was a complete 180 from what he's used to, it'll feel wrong to him.

Another moment of silence passed and Hotch kept his eyes on Sam. Emily was starting to think they lost Sam until-

"My dad and Tony Giles were old friends," Sam's voice was raw, almost like he had been crying. "They were in the service together, we've known him since we were kids, y'know?" A reminiscent smile grew on Sam's face, but started to melt away. "So we came as soon as we heard about his death."

 _Okay, either he's telling the truth or he's a REALLY good actor,_ Emily thought. She pulled out her phone.

_"What's up girlie?"_

"Hey Garcia, can you check if Tony Giles had any military records?"

 _"Why of course, my dark haired raven."_ Emily heard the clicking of keys for a few moments until Garcia spoke again. _"Uh, nope! Nothing in military."_

"Huh," said Emily. "How bout any association with John Winchester? Did their paths ever cross?"

_"Uhh... no, John and Tony Giles never knew each other. Karen didn't either, before you ask. Why, what's up?"_

_Damn._ "Hotch is interrogating Sam and he said his dad and Tony were buddies in the military, but it turns out he lied."

_"Oh what would you do without me, Emily?"_

Emily chuckled, hearing Garcia's smile through her phone. "Thanks Garcia."

 _"Yep!"_ Garcia hung up.

Shit. If Emily hadn't checked, she probably would've fallen for Sam's charade. These boys were more talented than they'd thought.

"So you just got to Baltimore this morning," Hotch summarized. 

"Yeah we did, so it would've been pretty hard for Dean to have killed Tony since we weren't even in town."

Hotch considered what Sam said, but said nothing about it. "Then what?"

"Well, then we went to go see Karen." Sam was sincere, but Emily now knows he's lying. She wonders if Hotch is falling for it too. "I mean, she was barely holding it together. We just wanted to be there for her, y'know?"

Emily would've bet that if Karen were still alive, she wouldn't have the brothers at all. Unless they did actually visit her, maybe in a disguise or posing as someone else.

"And uh, yeah. End of story." Sam shrugged.

Hotch's face hardened and Emily could hear a hint of anger in his voice when he spoke, "Don't lie to me Sam. What about the eyewitness saying they saw two men with you and your brother's description break into Tony Giles office."

"Okay, look," Sam defended himself, "Karen called us later. Said there was some stuff she wanted from Tony's office but the police weren't letting her in. Like a picture of the two of them in Paris and some other stuff," Sam sounded sincere and his voice started rising, "Look, it was wrong to enter a crime scene, but she gave us the key!"

Hotch didn't move. "Is that all you did? Retrieve Karen's personal belongings?"

"Yes!" Sam exclaimed.

Hotch hesitated for a moment, then folded his hands on the desk. "Tell me what you did the moment you walked into that building."

**NOVEMBER 3 - 8:09 PM**

"How long is this gonna take?" Sam asked impatiently, looking around the hall.

"Look man, picking locks don't usually take this long, I swear," Dean mumbled. Right when he said that they heard a click and Dean opened the office door. The ducked under the police tape, flashlights covering the room. Sam looked to his left as they were walking in and saw a large patch of red.

"Hey," he nudged Dean, "Anthony Giles body was found right about here." Sam held up the medical records they stole earlier and read aloud, "Throat slit so deep, part of his spinal chord was visible."

Dean whistled in disbelief. "What do you think? Vengeful spirit? Underline 'vengeful'?"

"Maybe," said Sam. They got to Tony's desk and Sam walked around to sit in the chair. "I mean he did have the 'weird dream,' he saw that woman at the foot of his bed."

Dean picked up a sheet of paper in the printer tray and what he read on the sheet puzzled him. "Look at this." He handed the paper to Sam who looked just as confused when he saw what was printed on the paper.

"Dana shulps," Sam read aloud. Though it wasn't just those two words, they were repeated with no spaces in between to the point where they covered the entire page. He looked at Dean, "What is that, a name?"

Dean went to the fax machine and picked up another paper that was identical. "I don't know, but it's everywhere."

This whole dana shulps situation told the brothers that this was definitely an abnormal killing. Sam shined his flashlight on the glass desk and saw some smudges from fingerprints. As Dean walked over to see, Sam blew on the glass to steam it up and the smudges were made out. Someone wrote "DANASHULPS" on the glass desk.

"Wow," said Sam in disbelief. "I'd say we've officially crossed over into weird."

"Maybe Giles knew her," Dean suggested.

"Maybe it's the name of our pale red-eyed mystery girl," Sam countered.

Dean grabbed a stack of files from another desk and threw it in front of Sam. "Well," said Dean, "Let's see what we can see."

Research. The most boring part of being a hunter.

Sam will admit, although he's better at research and has more patience between him and Dean, _he_ even began to feel frustrated after a while. After what seemed like 45 minutes of reading through files, Dean slammed the packet he was holding back into the file cabinet out of anger. 

"There's not a single mention of Dana Shulps anywhere. There's not a D. Shulps, or any kind of fucking Shulps." Dean walked over to Sam, trying to contain himself.

"Great," Sam grumbled as he was working with the computer.

"What do you got?"

Sam sighed, "Nothin'. No Dana Shulps has ever lived or died in Baltimore in the last fifty years at least."

Dean fidgeted impatiently. "So what now?"

"Well, I think I'm pretty close to cracking Giles' password. Maybe there's something in his personal files."

Dean paused "By close you mean..."

Sam shrugged, "30 minutes maybe?"

Dean looked at his watch, reading almost to 9PM. "Awesome," he mumbled sarcastically. He sat in the chair on the other side of the desk. "So I just get to, uh, hang out. Awesome."

Sam said nothing and worked at the password. Not even five seconds passed when Dean started making clicking noises with his tongue. It was a bit irritating, but Sam could work through it. Dean stopped and Sam was relieved until Dean blew a loud raspberry through his teeth.

Sam threw his arms up, "Dude!"

"Alright, I'm gonna go talk to Karen again and see if she knows anything about this Dana Shulps, huh?"

Sam nodded in irritation, "Great."

As Dean walked out, he shined his flashlight on Sam. "Keep going sparky."

**NOVEMBER 4 - 2:09 AM**

"Something's not right about this," Hotch said. Him and Emily are standing on the other side of the interrogation room, Sam being visible through the one way glass.

"Hotch, I checked with Garcia. He was lying about being close with Tony. Giles wasn't even in military," Emily informed.

Hotch raised an eyebrow. "Sam looked extremely sincere. I had my doubts but these two have most likely had a lot of opportunities to practice."

Emily pursed her lips, "Well most cops aren't experts in behavior; I wonder what they'll do when we expose them."

Hotch nodded and continued, "There are holes to the story too. Sam would've either gone with Dean or checked in with him when he went to visit Karen again. Why did he go straight to the motel? Sam claimed they were both close to Karen, which now we know isn't true."

Emily took this into consideration. "You're right. There's definitely more to these brothers than they let on. They're smart and very organized. I think they're used to being underestimated."

Hotch started walking back to the conference room and pulled out his phone. "I'm going to text everyone to meet in the conference room. We'll regroup and tell each other what we all found out. It's getting late, and I feel like it's going to be a long day tomorrow."

**NOVEMBER 4 - 12:44 AM**

"And here is Karen Giles' body," the M.E. said as he guided Reid and Rossi into the examiners room. The M.E. was a stout man and wore small glasses that perched at the tip of his round nose. He'd met the two agents at the front of the building where he also handed them the report. Reid of course read the whole thing by the time they got to the body. 

"That cut _is_ deep," exclaimed Rossi when he saw Karen's slit throat.

"Yeah," said Reid, looking closer. "It's a pretty clean cut too. The unsub had to be a professional."

"Which matches Dean Winchester's profile," added Rossi. He looked at the M.E. "Tox screen come in?"

"What? Oh, yes. It was clean, no toxins at all," said the M.E. He pushed up his glasses.

"Hey Rossi, look at this," Reid called over. He picked up Karen's hand and ran his finger over her wrist. "Bruising. I think the unsub tied Karen up before he killed her."

Rossi nodded, "It had to be tight too. Look, the bruising is around whatever the unsub used to tie her wrists. It looks like it cut off her bloodflow."

Reid put Karen's hand down just looked at the body, thinking. "If Dean Winchester is the unsub, why did he have to tie up Karen? He's definitely strong enough to overpower her. Doctor," he looked at the M.E. "Was there bruising anywhere else on Karen's body?"

"No, only on the wrists. However, Anthony Giles had the exact same bruising in the same place." He started to make his way to the door and said, "If you'll excuse me Agents, I have another body to look over. If you need me I'll just be across the hall."

Now three bodies were in the room, two of which were living.

"The tox screen was clean so he didn't inject them with anything," Rossi thought aloud. "Maybe tying them up is the unsub's style."

"But this bruising wasn't found on the women from the St. Louis murders," Reid countered. "This is a totally different M.O."

Rossi saw Reid's face go into his thinking mode, but Reid said nothing. Rossi sighed, "C'mon Reid, what's in that head of yours?"

Reid opened his mouth and hesitated before speaking. "If you think about it, the only evidence pinning Dean Winchester as the unsub is his history and the fact that he was standing over Karen's body. The family may have had a rough and not exactly legal history, but there's no solid evidence that Dean is the unsub."

Rossi took what Reid said into account. "But Dean is a sociopathic murderer, and there were no reports of anyone else inside Karen Giles' house."

"I don't know..." Reid kept thinking about this whole case, and something just doesn't add up. He looked up at Rossi enthusiastically. "I mean think about it, there's absolutely no evidence for Dean to have killed Karen. No knife or binding was found on the scene or on Dean. The only weapon found was his Colt with no shots fired."

"That's true, but-"

"Then there's Anthony Giles. Who killed him? The Winchesters were hours away at the time of his murder and so far there's no evidence that suggests that one of them used a method of travel other than their car. Why would they take their time to kill Karen right after her husband died? There's no connection between them and the brothers, and they were states away when Tony was murdered." Reid was buzzing. Do they really have the wrong guy?

Rossi sighed, "You know what, Reid? You may have me convinced. But remember, we don't know everything yet even though it may seem like it."

Reid nodded. "I'm going to call the others and see what they've got."

**NOVEMBER 4 - 1:12** **AM**

Research. The most boring part of being an FBI agent.

Morgan failed to stifle another yawn. They've been going at these files for what felt like hours, and although they learned a lot about the Winchester's past, they didn't find anything to help with the case. Morgan was just glad JJ and Garcia were with him. If either of them had a question, they could just call up Garcia instead of burying themselves in paper. Also, JJ's job is basically to look through mountains of files. Morgan doesn't know how she does it, honestly. 

"Hey, where do you think their dad is now?" JJ asked while reading a file in hand.

"John Winchester?" asked Morgan. "I mean, if he's not dead, probably in hiding. Garcia said he has no criminal record, but if you ask me? I think he's the one who shaped these two into killers."

"Well, just Dean," said JJ. "The worst Sam's done was credit card fraud and grave desecration."

"That we know of," Morgan pointed out. Just then, the phone sitting on the table rang. Morgan assumed it was Garcia calling back with more information, so he pressed the speaker button and answered with, "Hey babygirl."

 _"Morgan?"_ Morgan's smile dropped when he heard that the voice on the other end was not Garcia's, but Reid's. His eyes went wide and JJ covered her mouth trying not to laugh. _"Hello?"_

"I- um- we're here," Morgan stuttered, still trying to recover, "Sorry, I thought you were Garcia."

" _I figured_ ," said Reid. Morgan thought he could almost hear Reid blushing through the phone. Then to make matters worse, _"Uh, you're on speaker by the way."_

Morgan saw JJ raising her eyebrows. "Who else is there?" He asked nervously.

_"Just Rossi. And Karen, though I doubt she can hear you."_

Morgan sighed with relief. Then he heard Rossi's voice, _"Hey, just be glad it wasn't Hotch on the other end."_

"Or Strauss," said JJ, and they could hear Rossi chuckle.

Morgan closed his eyes, thinking about the nightmare it could've been. He decided to finally change the subject. "So what did you guys find?"

 _"Both Karen and Tony had tight bruising around their wrists,"_ informed Reid. _"But their tox screens were clean, so the unsub didn't inject them with anything to make tying them up easier. There were no other signs of personal rage or conflict."_

"Yeah, according to Garcia, Emily told her that Sam lied about their family being close with the Giles'," said JJ. "He even said his dad and Tony served together. John was a marine, but Tony or his family had no military history."

 _"That's odd, stretching a huge lie like that,"_ agreed Rossi. _"By the way, Reid and I were talking earlier. What if Dean isn't the unsub?"_

JJ and Morgan looked at each other perplexed. "But then why was Dean in Karen's house, kneeling over her body?"

 _"Yeah, that part is still unclear, but hear me out,"_ interjected Reid. He told them what he told Rossi before.

JJ and Morgan stayed silent, the theory still sinking in. Then JJ spoke, "Morgan, I think he has a point."

Morgan is still unsettled with Reid's theory. In fact, this whole case is starting to give him a bad feeling. "I don't know, JJ."

 _"I think we should hear what Dean says tomorrow. The PD hasn't cracked him yet, and he could be the key to solving this whole thing,"_ said Rossi. Morgan considered it, and he internally agreed that that's probably the best plan as of now. 

"When are you guys done? It's getting late," Morgan asked.

 _"Were almost finished here,"_ answered Rossi. _"We can talk more when we get back."_

 _"See ya,"_ Reid chirped and the line hung up. Morgan and JJ looked at each other, both seeing this case starting to take affect. If Dean or Sam really weren't the unsub, then who was? And where are they now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello readers! Chapter 2 is finally up! And it's a long one :)
> 
> Some notes about this chapter:
> 
> -The song Dean's playing at the beginning is none other than Immigrant Song by Led Zepplin. Thor: Ragnorok stans rise.  
> -The case with Jo that Dean mentions is actually the episode before this one. I have no idea if they did cases in between the two episodes but I decided to write that they didn't. Also I miss Jo.  
> -"Officer Sejas" is a cameo of my friend who's currently majoring in criminology and is a Criminal Minds fan. She may or may not show up later.  
> -Just a little foreshadowing to Strauss hearing Garcia sweet talk Morgan over the phone :) You know that scene.
> 
> I know those of you who've watched this episode already know the answers to the questions, but you don't know the outcome to this story :) keep reading, the mystery goes on!
> 
> I hope all of you are enjoying this fic! Please leave kudos and comments, I appreciate all of your feedback and it's the only way for me to know what you think of my work. It tells me that I'm actually writing for real people! Also, let me know if you have any ideas for later chapters, whether it's plot points or just fun banter between characters.
> 
> Alene: out!
> 
> P.S. I started watching NCIS and when I started writing about the M.E. the only person I could think of is Ducky, bless his soul. Maybe I'll write an NCIS crossover fic in the future :)


	3. Chapter 3

** NOVEMBER 4 - 9:31 AM **

Five hours and fourteen minutes of sleep. That's how long Spencer could've slept from the moment he tucked himself under the motel bed covers to the minute his alarm went off.

How long did he actually sleep? Two hours and twenty-six minutes. 

There were two types of cases Spencer has classified that kept him up at night. The first type were the more disturbing ones, whether it was something he'd seen or if it really messed with his head psychologically. The team had too many of those cases, it forced them to witness more than anyone should in a lifetime. The worst Spencer has gotten was, well, Tobias Hankel. Being kidnapped and tortured was something no one should ever go through, but Spencer had it worse. Never in his life would he had thought he'd get addicted to opioids, and he never thought it would happen like that. Spencer will always remember the next five months being a living hell. Christ, he even shot up in the public bathroom at work a few times. Now, Spencer was nearing nine months clean, and most of the time he feels proud. His pride falters, however, when the guilt creeps up on him. Sometimes it comes in the form of nightmares. Sometimes it comes in the form of craving.

Thankfully, this case didn't classify as a disturbing one. Yes, many people not accustomed to violence and gore would say that every case the BAU gets called for is disturbing, but to Spencer and the other FBI agents, a throat slash is nothing. No, this case fit in the second category: the overloaded cases. The type of cases where there's so much information that it creates an endless amount of theories and possibilities to what had happened. But this case, _this_ case was on the high end. The puzzle pieces were all over the place, and sometimes it felt like Spencer was trying to do multiple puzzles at the same time, except he couldn't differentiate which piece belonged in which puzzle. Spencer expected to fall right asleep when he got in bed since he had woken up early that morning, but the adrenaline rush of questions swimming in his head was too much. Waking up 32 minutes before his alarm went off, Spencer's mind was still on the case. Now they're all in the conference room of the Baltimore station, except for Rossi, who offered to get breakfast and coffee for the team.

 _If there is a god, thank you for the creation of coffee_ , he thought as he took a sip from his third cup that morning. They've been going over the case just to solidify where everyone is and to catch anyone up to speed. 

"Hold on," Morgan interjected, "What if the first murder _is_ connected to the Winchesters?"

"What do you mean?" asked Emily.

"Sam and Dean may not have been in town when Tony was murdered, but their father could've been. What if he wanted his son's to finish up the job?" Morgan proposed enthusiastically.

Hotch pondered on that. "That _is_ a possibility since there are no records of John's death, but we have nothing on him since... Garcia?"

 _"Yes sir,"_ Garcia interjected, _"Ever since Sam left the family and went to college, there's been hardly a traceable paper trail on John, but still traceable. However, the trail completely stopped about four months ago."_

"I'd say he's either in hiding or dead," Emily interjected.

"Buon appetito, my friends," Rossi announced as he walked into the room with Dunkin' Donuts breakfast foods and many cups of coffee. Having just finished his, Spencer grabbed another cup of coffee as soon as the tray was set on the table. Morgan gave him a raised eyebrow but didn't say anything. 

Hotch continued, "As far as we know, John is out of the picture. According to Detective Sheridan, Dean's story matches Sam's, however a little too much. At this point we know they're lying, thanks to Garcia-"

_"The pleasure's all mine."_

"-but we still don't know the truth. Now I know Reid has a strong theory-"

"Yesterday I was 72% positive, but after thinking it through last night I'm now 93% positive that the Winchesters aren't the unsubs," Spencer chimed in.

Hotch continued, "Now I've thought this through myself and I think Reid may be right. Later today we'll interrogate Dean and see what he says differently from before. Dean may have committed heinous crimes in the past according to his file, but that doesn't mean he committed this one."

"It kind of makes sense, no murder weapon was at the scene. And what's the motive? It can't just be random," added Rossi.

JJ nodded, "And the fact that we don't know who committed the first murder? I think this case is getting pretty fishy."

After the meeting adjourned, the team spread out in the station, some going through more files or talking to other officers, and some just thinking over the case in their heads. Spencer was brainstorming and writing down statistics on the whiteboard when Emily approached. She took a bite out of her breakfast burrito before speaking, "Hey Reid, something's been bothering me. If the Winchesters aren't the unsubs, then why did they lie to us?"

Spencer stopped writing and his mouth set in a hard line. "That's been bothering me too," he said unenthusiastically. "If they didn't commit the crime, what are they so guilty of that they need to tell a lie that was refuted immediately? They're smart enough to know that."

Emily bit her lip in uneasiness, and Spencer couldn't help but relate. Emily's been talking to Spencer more often, and although he'd never admit it, he was quite glad. Spencer remembers Emily had tried to help him when he was deep in his addiction, and her being the newest member of the team at that time caused Spencer to snap. But since then, he felt the two of them growing closer as she's solidifying herself as a team member, and maybe even a part of their family. Spencer realized he was starting to enjoy spending time with Emily. 

Detective Sheridan knocked on the open conference room door. "How's it going?"

Emily gave a sigh, "It's going. We found out they both lied in their stories of what they did yesterday even though they both matched."

Pete raised his eyebrows in excitement. "Then they have to be guilty! I mean, Dean is a killer."

"Well, we're not sure about that," Spencer interjected. "Although Dean was at the scene of the crime, we're still missing motive, and more importantly, the murder weapon. Dean may have had motive for his murder's in St. Louis, in that case it being sexual pleasure, but there's no reason for Dean to have killed Karen."

Pete looked concerned. "Well does there have to be a reason? Couldn't Dean have killed her randomly?" he asked.

"Actually, most murderers either have strong motive or know their victim. If Dean murdered Karen just to kill, most likely for some kind of pleasure, he didn't show it," answered Spencer.

Emily continued, "The way both Karen and Tony were killed were mission oriented, so the unsub had to have known the two personally or had to have worked with either of them, most likely Tony. Also, the Winchester's weren't even in town when Tony was murdered, it's too much of a coincidence for Karen's murder to be random."

Spencer realized that Pete was becoming unusually irritated as they filled him in to what they had discovered. "Oh come on, that just sounds ridiculous. I mean, Dean was found standing over Karen's body. Courts have convicted for less!"

Hotch must've overheard their conversation because suddenly he approached Spencer's side and spoke in his hard authoritative tone. "Detective Sheridan, I'm not sure if you remember, but when the authorities arrest and convict someone, we do it the correct way, not the easy way. That means considering every possibility even if that possibility seems extremely outlandish. Yes, Dean may be a sociopath and a murderer in the past, but that doesn't mean he murdered Karen Giles. You asked us to help you on this case, and that's what we will continue to do. Understood?"

Pete's face went cold as he stared back at Hotch. "Yes," he said tautly, "I understand. I apologize." He looked at the other two agents. "Excuse me," he said as he walked away.

Emily was the first to break the silence. "What was that?"

Hotch eyed Spencer and Emily as he pulled out his phone. "I think Garcia needs to know she has another task." He speed dialed Garcia's number and his cell phone rang once before she answered.

 _"What's up boss?"_ Garcia's singsong voice answered on the other side.

"Garcia, I need you to add Detective Pete Sheridan of the Baltimore Police Department to your search," he responded quietly so no one would overhear. "Check if he has any connections to the Winchesters or to the Giles'."

_"Sheridan? Isn't that who you're working with?"_

"Yes, but after hearing about Reid's theory that Dean may be innocent, he became unreasonably angry and admitted he'd rather convict Dean than the unsub. I have reason to believe he's hiding something."

_"Oof, that does sound sketchy. I'm right on it boss! Let me know if you need anything else." *Click*_

Hotch said one last thing before he went back to what he was doing. "You two, pay closer attention to Sheridan's behavior. I'll let the rest of the team know, but anything new gets through me first."

After Hotch left, Emily went to talk to JJ leaving Spencer alone. If he thought this case was an information overload last night, this raised the bar. The confrontation that just happened just added an entirely new puzzle to Spencer's puzzle pool. He decided to clear his head by heading to the interrogation rooms and watching Sam and Dean's behavior. It was quiet, he'll be alone, and maybe he'll learn something new by studying the brother's himself.

**NOVEMBER 4 - 11:42 AM**

Dean started tapping the rhythm of another Metallica song on the cheap metal table in the interrogation room. No one's talked to him all morning, but Dean preferred it that way. It gave him more time to think about the situation they're in. More importantly, it gave him more time to think about the case. This wasn't the first time he and Sam have been arrested, Dean wasn't worried about that. The problem was this was the first time they've been arrested since St. Louis. To make things better, Dean was found touching a freshly murdered body. Oh, and the whole world found out Dean's not dead, let's not forget about that. Dean thought to himself that the only way this could get worse is if the Fed's show up. 

Dean was mostly thinking about dana shulps, though. When he and Sam first started this case, they weren't 100% sure if it was supernatural related. Hey, sometime's it isn't. But when Karen told them about Tony's dream, and when the brother's found the phrase dana shulps, that was like a neon sign for supernatural. The thing is, neither Sam nor Dean have seen anything like it. The printer was one thing, but seeing someone smudged the words on Tony's glass desk made it even weirder. Dean's been thinking since then who Dana Shulps was. There was no Dana Shulps mentioned in any of Tony's files and Karen had died before Dean could find if there was any connection with her. The only lead they have right now is that Dana Shulps could be the name of the red-eyed girl Tony saw in his "dream." It had to be a ghost, there was no other explanation. But after thinking more and more, Dean was becoming less convinced it was her name. Maybe it was a place? But locations didn't sound like that-

It clicked. Dean raised his eyebrows. Maybe it _was_ a place, or another name entirely. He remembered that ghosts aren't exactly lucid and can mix a lot of things up while trying to communicate through the veil.

What if "danashulps" wasn't a name, but an anagram?

Dean tried scrambling the letters in his head, but after a few seconds he decided it was hopeless. He regretted doing so, but he looked at the one way mirror, hoping there was someone watching on the other side.

"Hey, officer? I have a question." Dean waited a few seconds and got nothing. "If you, uh, don't mind," he added for politeness. He was kinda desperate.

He waited again and still nothing. Right when Dean slumped in defeat, the door opened and an officer walked in the room. Once Dean really looked at him, he realized he couldn't have been a officer. Dean was expecting either that douche detective that interrogated him before, or some middle aged cop that looked like they care more about donuts than Dean. Instead, a kid walked in. Dean could swear if he wasn't in high school then he definitely had to have just started college. He had light brown wavy hair that almost reached his shoulders and was skinnier than Sam was in middle school. He also wore a sweater vest, who does that? Dean noticed the kid didn't approach him and instead stood through the doorway.

"Hey, could you grab...." Dean trailed off at the sight of the kid. "Do you work here?"

The kids face stayed blank as he answered, "No."

His voice even sounded pre-pubescent. Dean raised an eyebrow, "You a cops kid then? Cuz I don't think you're allowed back here-"

"I'm a Federal Agent," he said, furrowing his brows.

Dean chuckled, "That's cute but-" he stopped mid sentence when the kid pulled out his FBI badge. Dean looked back up at the not-kid's face and realized he was being serious.

"Oh... well that's just what I needed. The Feds on my ass again," Dean tried to play it cool, but in reality he was embarrassed. All he needed was more bad rep with a Fed.

"What did you need?" the agent said as he put away his badge.

"Uh, yeah, could I have a pen and paper?'

The agent seemed confused. "Why?"

Dean held out his hands and shrugged, "I'm bored."

The ~~kid~~ agent bored his eyes at Dean for just a moment longer. Then he gave a nod and shut the door again. That gave about a minute for Dean to freak out. If the Feds were here, how were they going to get out of this one? Also, how old is that guy? Dean bet the agents are planning to convict him no matter what. They're probably looking through his files about how Dean skinned and murdered a bunch of women which means he must've killed Karen. Dean fixed his posture when he heard the door open again, then feeling stupid immediately after because the agent probably saw him through the one way mirror. This time, the agent walked up to Dean and placed a notepad and pen on the table.

Dean immediately grabbed the pen and wrote down "dana shulps" along with other random anagrams: dan shulpas, land pushas, push landas.

For some reason the agent was still by his side. "What's with your interest in anagrams?"

Dean kept writing, "My brother was stumped on a puzzle the other day. I think I just figured it out." Plush danas, supash land- hmm. Dean wasn't sure about the "sup" part, but "Ashland" definitely sounded like a place. He wrote that down on a separate piece of paper and put a couple question marks next to it. After writing something else on the top, he tore the paper off of the notepad and gave it to the agent with a cheesy grin. "You wouldn't mind giving this to my brother, would you? He's been itching to find out the answer, he's a nerd like that."

If the agent seemed suspicious, he didn't show it. He read the paper while walking across the room, probably looking for anything that would look like code, y'know, since Dean is a serial killer and all. As he opened the door, however, the agent hesitated. Dean didn't know why until he turned around to speak. "My name is Spencer Reid, by the way. And uh," he paused, "We're not, exactly... _with_ Sheridan. Just thought you'd know that."

Dean's first thought was: well that was awkward. But when the door shut and Dean was alone once again, the message started to sink in. _Not with Sheridan_. Did he mean Sheridan was off the case? That he was 100% turned over to the Fed's? Or did it mean something else? Was he telling Dean that whoever's here think's Sheridan was wrong? That Dean wasn't a serial killer? Dean buried his face in his hands and rubbed his eyes. This was too much. As long as Sam gets his message, everything might just work out... 

** NOVEMBER 4 - 12:03 PM **

Damnit Dean. If he hadn't gone back to Karen's body, the wouldn't have gotten into this mess. Even worse, the Feds are here. Sam kept thinking about the agent that interrogated him. Oh, he was cold. Sam knew he was in fat shit when he started to lie during the interrogation. But what else was he supposed to do? Tell an FBI agent that they were hunting a ghost that killed Tony and Karen? That would send them straight to a mental institute for life. No one's entered his interrogation room today and it's causing Sam to worry. They're probably hounding at Dean, trying to get him to confess.

But to Sam, dana shulps was the most important thing right now. It was the key to their case, Sam just hasn't fully figured it out yet. If it's not a name, it has to be a place. Or some kind of code- an anagram. That's it.

Sam almost jumped when the door opened and a young guy walked in. Sam noticed he wasn't dressed in a police uniform but had a gun holstered on his belt. Sam would say Fed, but he seemed pretty young to even be a cop, and he definitely didn't have the body type.

"I'm Special Agent Spencer Reid. Your brother asked me to give you this." So he _was_ a Fed. He placed a piece of paper on the table.

However, Sam had other questions. "Dean? How is he? Are you interrogating him?" 

For a second Agent Reid looked a bit confused. "No one's been interrogating him. I was the only one watching him through the mirror when he asked for a piece of paper," he replied.

"Oh," Sam said. That wasn't the answer he was expecting. As Agent Reid walked toward the exit, Sam asked another question, "What are you guys doing, then?"

Agent Reid turned around as he opened the door. "We're, uh, working on other parts of the case." He gave an awkward smile and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Sam doesn't know how, but he felt something was up and there was more than the agent was letting on. He picked up the paper from the table and realized what it was. The paper read "Hilts - It's an anagram" with the word sup Ashland written down next to "place??". The note was signed off by McQueen. It seems like Dean was on the same page as him, one step ahead even. Looking at Dean's hidden message that the cops and Feds were sure to miss, he knew what he had to do next. He just had to make sure no one was watching.

** NOVEMBER 4 - 2:15 PM**

Acting natural is what Emily knows how to do best. Along with keeping secrets. She wasn't an amateur when it came to playing spy. She was sitting at a computer one of the officers lent her and was looking through files and information that could possibly help with the case. However, she was really watching Detective Pete Sheridan. His reaction to the theory that Dean may be innocent definitely had to be related to the case. Either he has a personal vendetta against Dean or his family, or, he's the one who committed the murders and wants to cover it up as soon as possible. But you can't prove anything without evidence.

She'd been focusing on Sheridan for so long, Emily almost didn't notice JJ approach until she spoke.

"Keeping an eye on Pete?" JJ asked as she sat herself on the edge of the desk next to the computer, her facing opposite of Emily.

"Yeah, Hotch asked me too," Emily responded, keeping her eyes on the computer/Sheridan.

"He told us what happened, it's pretty weird. I think he's definitely hiding something," said JJ. She took a swig of coffee.

Emily nodded in agreement, "He hasn't done anything else though. Maybe he's angry about Dean's other murders, and wants him in jail for that."

"Hm, makes sense. Y'know..." But while JJ continued talking, Emily noticed something appearing on her screen. All the words were changing as if someone was typing them really fast, but oddly enough no one was touching the keyboard. Emily saw that it was one phrase: danashulps being repeated over and over again with no spaces in between. But as soon as Emily blinked, the screen went back to normal. 

Huh. That was weird.

"...mily? Emily?" JJ's voice came back and Emily blinked a couple times, trying to get out of whatever trance she was in.

JJ looked at Emily, then at the computer screen, confused. "You okay? You kinda checked out for a second there."

Emily blinked, "Yeah..." Maybe it was a virus? _I must've been seeing things,_ she thought. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said, laughing it off.

JJ didn't seem like she bought it, but she didn't push the subject. "Okay, well make sure to take a break soon. Fresh air can clear your head." JJ smiled as she got up from the desk and went back to the conference room. 

* * *

It was about 20 minutes later when Emily saw her team and a few officers rush toward the interrogation rooms. She grabbed Morgan's arm as he passed her.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Dean's going to confess, c'mon," he said swiftly. Emily jumped up and followed him to Dean's interrogation room, where the rest of the team already was. Someone was setting up a camera inside of the room where Hotch, Rossi, and Detective Sheridan were. Emily stood all the way on the right side of the crowd watching through the window with Reid on her left. Dean sat there with a smug smile on his face, waiting for the tape to start.

"If this son of a bitch really is innocent, I really wanna know what he's got to say," said Morgan, shaking his head. He looked over to Reid. "What are you thinkin', pretty boy?"

Reid sighed and said, "Honestly? I'm just as confused as you are."

Finally they heard Detective Sheridan say, "Talk directly into the camera. Start by stating your name for the record."

Dean cleared his throat and sat up, his hands folded on the table. The watch room was completely silent as Dean spoke.

"My name is Dean Winchester. I'm an Aquarius."

Morgan rolled his eyes, "Here we go."

"I enjoy sunsets, long walks on the beach, and frisky women," Dean added with a smirk. Then his voice became stern as he said, "And I _did not_ kill anyone." He looked up at the agents in the room. "But I know who did, or rather _what_ did."

Emily looked at the rest of the team who seemed as confused as she was. "Where's he going with this?" she asked, not expecting a response. Dean continued.

"Of course we can't be for sure, because our investigation was interrupted." Emily noticed he directed that statement towards Sheridan. He looked back at the camera. "But our working theory is that we're looking for some kind of vengeful spirit."

That threw everyone in for a loop. "Excuse me?" Rossi asked. Sheridan rolled his eyes and Hotch just looked at Dean, confused.

The corners of Dean's mouth quirked up as he looked at Rossi, "Y'know, Casper the bloodthirsty ghost? Tony Giles saw it, and I bet you cash money Karen saw it too."

"Great," Emily said almost in a mocking tone, "He's not only a sociopath, but he's crazy too."

"But see, the interesting thing is the word it leaves behind. For some reason, it's trying to tell us something. But communicating across the veil ain't easy..."

Reid whispered to Emily while keeping his eyes on Dean, "It's funny, a lot of what he's saying is accurate in most supernatural lore."

Emily didn't say anything, she just thought all of this was hooey. "Sometimes its word fragments. Other times," Dean continued, pulling a paper out of his inside jacket pocket, "it's anagrams." Dean held up a sheet of paper, and Emily froze. The paper read the exact same thing she swore she saw appear earlier on the computer: DANASHULPS. On the paper were anagrams of that word, none really making sense. But Emily's stomach sank from the fact that Dean couldn't have had anything to do with the computer glitch. How did he get that word?

She forced herself to pay attention to what Dean said next. "See, at first we though it was a name, Dana Shulps. But now, we think its a place or a street: Ashland. Whatever's going on, I bet it started there."

Sheridan started to complain to Dean on the other side of the wall, but Emily wasn't listening anymore. Her mind was racing from what she just experienced. It couldn't have been a coincidence. It didn't help when Reid started talking to her again.

"Hey, Emily, about that paper Dean held up, I think I should tell-" He paused after finally getting a good look at her. "Are you ok? You look kinda pale."

Emily looked at Reid and faked a smile horribly. "I'm fine, it's fine." She didn't know if she could tell anyone about this. But, she didn't have time to make a decision because Detective Ballard rushed into the interrogation room looking worried.

"Guys," she said very seriously. "Sam's gone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SORRY I ENDED IT THERE I WAS GONNA WRITE MORE BUT IT WAS JUST THE PERFECT CLIFFHANGER  
> DON'T WORRY I'LL START ON CHAPTER 4 RIGHT AWAY  
> THINGS ARE GETTING SPICYYYYYY  
> please leave kudos and feedback in the comments <3 thank you for reading!!!


	4. Chapter 4

**NOVEMBER 4 - 4:18 PM**

"You know, I bet they were planning it all along. Dean got all of us to watch his confession so that Sam could escape," said Morgan.

Everyone was still baffled about what had happened. First, Dean starts spitting something about ghosts killing Tony and Karen, then Sam is gone. What confused the team the most is how Sam escaped out of a two story window with no fire escape. But that was far from what Emily was thinking about right now. 

"If Dean really believed what he was saying, he could be somehow brainwashed, or part of some sort of cult," Reid proposed. "His lore was very accurate from what I've read."

Rossi shook his head. "It was that damn note Sam had. 'Hilts and McQueen'. Hilts is Steve McQueen's character in The Great Escape. It had to be their code."

Reid looked down in guilt, but no one seemed to notice except Emily. She remembered he was about to tell her something after the confession but was cut short. That on top of dana shulps was making her head spin. She had to take a breather.

"Be right back guys, bathroom break," her and Reid's eyes met for a fraction of a second before she headed down the hall. Something was going on with him too, but she pushed that thought aside. She walked in the bathroom, which was thankfully empty, and went over to the only sink with a light lit above it.

As she reached for the faucet, the handle turned itself and water sprayed into the sink. Emily backed up, shocked.

 _Oh god, I_ am _going crazy._

The hot water was steaming out of the sink when all the other faucets turned on by themselves. Emily couldn't help but freak out as she watched what was happening before her eyes. All the steam was fogging up the mirrors to the point where she could barely make out her reflection. Then the unthinkable happened. Someone was writing on the mirror. Except, there was no one there. The lines and curves kept going until Emily could make out what it said.

DANASHULPS.

Emily was breathing hard at this point, and the humidity in the bathroom didn't help at all. She couldn't take it. Before the word finished, she swiped her hand and smudged the word off the mirror revealing her reflection.

But someone was behind her.

Emily jumped and turned around, mouth agape. There was a dirty, pale woman standing right in front of her... with her throat slit open. Emily started to really panic when the dead woman walked toward her more quickly than she could register. The woman started to make noises with her mouth, but blood started gushing from her throat. Emily was panicking too much to scream and decided to flee. She ran out of the bathroom, bursting the doors open and ran right into someone grabbing her. Emily screamed, but her mouth was covered before anyone could hear. When she finally saw it was Reid who had grabbed her, she relaxed. Barely.

"Woah woah woah, Emily, what's wrong?" Reid asked, extremely concerned. Emily tried to tell him what happened, but all her body could manage to do was point towards the bathroom and make incoherent sounds with her mouth as she tried to catch her breath. Reid seemed to pick up something she was trying to say, because he leaned her against the wall and went in the bathroom. A few seconds later, he came back out.

"Emily, what happened?" he asked.

"The.. the woman... did you see her?" Emily managed to ask in between breaths.

"Woman?" Reid appeared to be confused. "Emily, there's no one in the bathroom."

"Wha..." _But she was right there._ "Are- are the faucets on?"

Reid shook his head, "No, they're all off. It's just really humid and steamy in there."

Emily's hands were shaking. She had to tell Reid. Somehow, he's the only one she felt comfortable talking to right now.

"Someplace private?" she asked hopefully, and Reid started to pull her towards an empty storage room. He closed the door and Emily started to pace back and forth.

"What happened?"

Emily just shook her head. "You wouldn't believe me."

Reid sighed. "You can still tell me though. And you shouldn't bite your nails. It can damage your teeth."

Emily pulled her fingers away from her mouth. She didn't even realize she was doing it until Reid pointed it out. "Sorry, nervous habit," she muttered.

Reid cleared two foldable chairs with boxes on top of them and set them across from each other. He guided Emily to sit down and he sat across from her.

"Emily," he paused until she was looking at him. "Breath with me, okay?" They took three slow deep breaths together and Emily felt a bit more calm after that. She still wasn't sure if she was ready to talk, though.

"Hey, how 'bout this," Reid proposed, "Just start from the beginning. Don't worry about if I believe it or not. Just talk. I'll listen."

Emily thought about what Reid suggested and nodded. If she started from the beginning, she needed to start from the _very_ beginning.

"You know the word Dean talked about? Danashulps?" Reid nodded. Emily played with her hands to get over the nerves. "That wasn't the first time I saw that word."

Reid looked confused. "What do you mean?"

Emily hesitated before she spoke again. "I was... on a computer earlier, looking through files. Then the text started to change, except no one was typing anything." She looked Reid in the eye. "The word was danashulps. Over and _over_ again until it filled the whole screen." She looked down again. "Then I blinked and it was gone. It was as if nothing happened. I thought I had hallucinated it, or it was some sort of virus. Until Dean's confession."

Reid only nodded. "So what just happened in the bathroom?"

Emily was silent for a bit longer before talking again. "The sink turned on. By itself. Then the rest of the sinks. It was hot water, that's why the bathroom was so humid. All the mirrors were fogged up." She took a deep breath. "Then, someone was smudging the mirror. It was like an invisible person-"

"Or a ghost," interrupted Reid.

Emily looked back at Reid and swallowed. "It wrote danashulps in the mirror. I wiped it away, because I was freaking out. Then I saw it."

She expected Reid to say something, but he was silent, allowing her to continue. "I- I saw a dead woman standing behind me. Her throat was cut, and it started spilling out blood."

Reid put his hands on her shoulders. She didn't realize she was shaking. "She approached me and that's when I ran out."

"Well, the good thing is you're not hurt," said Reid after some seconds of silence.

Emily's face fell. "You don't believe me, do you."

Reid's mouth twisted as he decided what to say next. He shrugged, "Technically the existence of the supernatural aren't proven nor disproven."

Emily didn't know what to say to that. "Um..."

Reid sighed, "I don't know if I believe you, honestly." He thought for a moment, biting his lip. "But it seems like Dean is your only lead right now."

Emily sighed, "I was afraid you'd say that." But he was right. Dean was her only connection with what she's experienced. Emily was unwillingly a part of this now. Getting to the bottom of it was her only choice. She stood up, regaining her confidence. She's an FBI agent, not some unexperienced pedestrian. She can do this.

"Hey, um, before we go..." Reid stood up. Emily noticed he was acting pensive. "I also have a confession."

"What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

Reid hesitated before speaking. "I'm the one who gave Sam the note. About Ashland," he grimaced, obvious that he knows he was the one responsible for Sam's escape.

"What? You- how did you, of all people, not notice their code? Or find that suspicious?" Emily asked in disbelief.

Reid shrugged apologetically. "I've never seen The Great Escape," he said. "Hey, if Dean's right, then technically it's a good thing Sam escaped. He said they were working on the case, right?"

Emily rolled her eyes and left the storage room. Once Reid caught up by her side she whispered, "Cover me. Make sure no one walks into the room and turn the recording off."

When they got to the interrogation rooms, thankfully they were alone. Dean was resting his head on his hand, looking like he was sleeping. As Reid stood guard, Emily opened the door to Dean's room.

Dean looked at her and there was a pregnant silence in the room. Emily didn't know where to start. She was still shaken from what happened in the bathroom and for all she knows, Dean is a murderer. Dean didn't seem to be paying much attention to her, though.

"Can we make this quick? I'm a little tired," he complained groggily. "It's been a long day-"

"I wanna know more about that stuff you were talking about earlier," Emily interrupted. She tried to speak in a confident and assertive tone, but she doubts her face showed the same.

Dean looked at her. "TIME Life, Mysteries of the Unknown. Look it up." He gave a cold smile and he seemed pretty annoyed to Emily. Instead of responding, Emily walked up to the video camera that was still in the room from the confession. She checked to make sure it was off and stood herself across from Dean.

"Let's say, at the moment, you're _not_ entirely insane," she started. "What would... one of those _things_ be doing here?"

Dean raised his eyebrows, "A vengeful spirit?"

Emily nodded quickly. She was already feeling stupid for doing this.

Dean sat up and said, "Well, they're created by violent deaths, and then they come back for a reason- usually a nasty one. Like revenge on the people that hurt them."

Emily thought about that. She pulled at her earring nervously. "And uh, these spirits. They're capable of killing people?"

Dean just chuckled silently, like what Emily was asking was ridiculous. But then something changed. Dean's face suddenly went serious as he looked at Emily. She felt her heartbeat quicken. He seemed to focus on her raised hand.

"Where did you get that?" he asked, suddenly sounding urgent. Emily didn't know what he was talking about until she looked at her wrist and saw something she didn't notice before. Her wrist was bruised, badly, like someone had bound her tightly.

"I- I don't know." She started to panic and checked her other wrist, only to find the same thing. "It wasn't there before," she said frantically.

Dean leaned over the table and looked her in the eye with a glimmer in his eye. "You've seen it, haven't you? The spirit?"

Emily paled. Her breath was shakey. "How did you know?"

"Because Karen had the exact same bruising on her wrists. And I'm willing to bet if you look at Giles' autopsy photo's, he's got 'em too." He seemed to realize something. "It's got something to do with the spirit. I don't know what."

Emily slowly turned around, grabbing her wrist. If the victims had the same thing, what did this mean? Was she really going to die by something her teammates couldn't believe? She stared at herself in the mirror. She would say she was as pale as a ghost, but it wouldn't really help the situation.

"I know," Dean said, "You think you're going crazy. But let's skip that part, shall we? Because the last two people who saw this thing died pretty soon after."

Emily turned back around to face him. "You said the word danashulps was at the crime scene."

Dean raised his eyebrows. "You saw it too? Listen. You need to go to Sam. He'll help."

Emily wasn't sure if she heard him right. "You're giving you're brother up?"

Dean ignored her. "Go to the first motel listed in the yellow pages. Look for Jim Rockford, it's how we find each other when we're separated."

Wow, these brothers _are_ more organized than the team thought. They must experience a lot more if they've prepared for something like this.

"Look, you can arrest him if you want, or you can let him save your life."

Emily definitely knows what option she's going to pick. Before she left the room, she said, "About that, our team actually had a working theory that you weren't the unsub."

Dean looked confused, "Unsub?"

Oh, right. "Unknown subject, the killer."

"Ah," said Dean. "Did that skinny kid agent have anything to do with it?"

"Reid?" Who else could he be talking about? "He came up with the theory, actually. Well, we can't say anything about the St. Louis murders, obviously..."

"Well since we're showing our cards right now, that wasn't me either. It was a shapeshifter." 

Emily wasn't expecting that. "A _shapeshifter?"_

"Yeah, they exist, sadly. It helped fake my death though, got the cops off of us for a while. But that doesn't mean they aren't nasty son's of bitches. Now go. We gotta kill this spirit before it kills someone else."

Once Emily shut the door to the interrogation room, Reid rushed up to her. "No one came by. What did he say?"

Emily made sure no one was approaching. "He told me where Sam is hiding. He said he could help me if I go to him."

Reid nodded and started to walk. "Alright, let's go."

"Woah, Reid." Emily grabbed his wrist. "You're staying here."

"What? No, I'm going with you. Emily, you shouldn't go to a possible unsub's house alone. I should know."

Reid's words sank into her. Shit. "Okay," said Emily. She wasn't going to argue over this. "Let's go."

Reid nodded and looked down when Emily quickly pulled her hand away. Emily wasn't quick enough, though.

"Hey, what's on your wrist?" Emily froze and Reid took her hand. His eyes widened. "That's... Karen and Tony had the same bruisings. How-"

Emily gently pulled her hand away. "I know. Honestly I didn't notice it until Dean pointed it out to me. I think I got them when I saw the ghost," she said lowly. "So, do you believe me now?"

Reid looked concerned. "Yeah," he said. "Let's go."

** NOVEMBER 4 - 6:36 PM **

The two agents approached the motel door. It's gotten dark and the air was chilly. They both stood there, anticipating what was on the other side.

"Well?" Reid asked Emily. "Knock."

Emily gave Reid a dirty look.

"What? You're the one who saw the ghost," he said.

Emily just sighed. Without hesitating, she knocked the door. A few seconds passed and it opened, with Sam standing in front of them. Again, Emily keeps forgetting how tall he was, and she thought _Reid_ was tall.

He saw Emily first and opened his mouth to speak. Before he actually said anything his eyes drifted to Reid and his face changed to defensive, obviously recognizing him. He was about to close the door, but Emily pushed it open.

"Dean sent us," was the first thing she said. Sam stopped. "I- I saw the ghost."

Sam's mouth set in a hard line. It looked like he was deciding whether to believe them or not, looking between the two. Apparently, he chose the former and stepped aside to let them in. He looked outside once more and shut the door. "Alright," he said. He crossed his arms and stood across from them. "Tell me everything."

So Emily did. She told him about danashulps, seeing it on the computer before hearing it from Dean. Then her experience in the bathroom, about how the ghost wrote on the mirror and appeared right behind her. Then she showed him her wrists.

"So these appeared only after you saw the ghost?" Sam asked. He was holding her wrists, and his gentleness surprised her. He even looked worried, like he felt bad for her. She nodded.

"Dean said the same thing was on Karen's body when he found her. He bet Tony had similar bruising too," she said. Sam let go of her wrists.

"He did." Both of them looked at Reid, who was standing at somewhat of a distance from the two. He looked at Sam and said, "I saw Karen's body at the morgue, the M.E. said Tony had identical bruising."

Sam turned back to Emily. "Did she hurt you?"

Emily shook her head. "She didn't even touch me. It's like she was trying to say something, but there was so much blood coming from her throat." 

"Huh, that's weird," Sam exclaimed.

Emily was confused. "Out of everything that happened, _that's_ the thing that strikes you as weird?"

Sam chuckled before growing concerned again. "Well, usually a vengeful spirit wants revenge, so it would attack whoever it's haunting. But if it was trying to say something..." he trailed off, his eyes going distant as his thoughts raced. "What did the spirit look like?"

"Um," the memory was still burned in her mind. "She was pale, maybe mid-20's. Blonde. Her eyes were red."

Sam nodded and went over to a table on the other side of the room. Emily and Reid followed and they saw Sam's laptop open with a pile of papers next to it. He took the papers and said, "I looked up Ashland, and it _is_ a street. I've been researching every girl who's ever died or gone missing from Ashland Street and got these so far."

Emily saw the papers Sam was holding, but Reid beat her to it. "Those are from crime scenes and booking photos, how'd you get those?"

Sam looked guilty and shrugged, "You have your job, I got mine."

If Sam was good enough to hack into police databases, she was glad he wasn't their enemy right now. He held out the papers to Emily. "Take a look at these and let me know if you recognize any of them."

Profiling. That was easy enough. Although, this was the first time she was profiling a ghost. She took the papers. The first one was a black and white photo of a dead woman with a mutilated face. It must've been taken at least 50 years ago, but Emily didn't find anything recognizable. The next photo was more recent, a portrait in color. But she had dark brown hair and didn't seem familiar either. The third photo caught her eye. It was a a mug shot of a blonde woman and had similar facial features to what Emily saw saw. She showed the photo to Sam. "That's her. I'm sure of it."

Sam took the papers and read off the police report, "Claire Becker, 28 years old. She disappeared about 8 or 9 months ago."

"What was she arrested for?" asked Reid.

"It says she was arrested twice for dealing heroine. Maybe something went south," Sam suggested.

Emily saw Reid go into Thinking Mode. Before Emily could ask, Reid pulled out his cell phone and dialed someone. He put the phone on speaker.

 _"Hello resident genius, this is other resident genius speaking,"_ greeted Garcia from the other end.

Sam raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Reid asked, "Hey Garcia, can you tell me about Claire Becker? She'd be in the Metro Police database."

They heard some keyboard clicks on the other end. _"She was arrested twice, both for dealing heroine- oh. She was a police informant."_

The three looked at each other. That definitely added to the story.

_"She went missing about 9 months ago, she was last seen entering 2911 Ashland street. Police searched the building but didn't find anything."_

"Thanks," said Reid. "Hey, would you mind... keeping this between us, by the way?"

_"Uh, okay...."_

Reid looked at Emily knowingly, "Thanks Garcia,"

 _"No problem,"_ she sounded suspicious to Emily but didn't press on.

Emily cut in, "Hey Garcia, you find anything on Sheridan?" 

_"Oh yeah! I already told Hotch, but Sheridan and Tony Giles had suspiciously similar bank deposits. For what? I haven't gotten there yet. What ever it was, it's covered up really well."_

Emily raised an eyebrow. "Huh. Thanks, Garcia."

_"Of course. And guys? Please be safe, whatever you're doing."_

Emily smiled. She loved Garcia. "We will," and hung up.

"Is she your techie?" Sam asked.

Emily gave a knowing look, "More like our hacker. She even managed to trace your fake credit card trail."

Sam started to look guilty, "Well it's kinda our only option. Monster hunting is like a full time job without the payment." He nodded toward the phone in Reid's hand. "Who's Sheridan?"

Reid hesitated before responding. "The head Detective who called us on the case. When I told him Dean might not be guilty, he became unreasonably angry and tried to convince us to convict him no matter what."

"And it looks like Tony was in on it somehow," Emily added, biting her lip. 

"Wait," Sam said, brows furrowed. "You didn't think Dean was guilty?"

"We can't have a say for St. Louis, but there was no motive or evidence for Dean to have killed Karen. The only thing the police have is finding him kneeling over the body and his past crimes," Reid responded.

"Huh," said Sam. "Well, neither of us are killers, and Dean definitely didn't kill those women."

"Dean was caught on tape though. Are you saying someone messed with the feed to frame him?" Reid countered. Emily knew where this was going.

"Uhh," Sam smiled to himself, bracing for their reactions. "It was a shapeshifter, actually."

Reid raised his eyebrows. "Oh," he said. 

Sam looked at Emily. "You don't seemed very surprised," he said.

"Dean told me already," Emily responded. "I just still have a hard time believing it. God, I can't believe this is all real."

"Yeah," Sam said softly. He looked like he felt bad, like he knows how it feels. "It's not really a life you want to get in to."

The room fell into silence. Emily was starting to feel bad for Sam. She realized he didn't seem to have a life, just driving around his brother. He's been in no contact with anyone, and who knows what happened to their father. Their way of living was scamming credit cards and living out of shitty motels and that doesn't sound like a way she'd want to live.

Sam loudly cleared his throat and got out of his chair. "Well, since the police didn't find anything, I guess we gotta check it out ourselves, see if we can find the body."

Sam was halfway to the door before the two agents registered what he just said. "Wait, _what?"_

Sam turned to face them as he grabbed his jacket. "We gotta salt and burn the bones. It's the only way to put her spirit to rest."

Emily just looked at him in shock and confusion. "Why salt?"

"Salt usually represents purity from what it says in the bible and lore states it repels evil entities such as ghosts or demons," cut in Reid.

Both stared at him in silence. "What?" Reid defended, "I read about supernatural lore once in a while."

 _I should've expected that,_ Emily thought.

As they headed out to the cool autumn air, Sam walked towards a shiny black classic car.

Emily whistled. "This is yours?" she asked as she approached the car.

"Yeah," said Sam as he opened the drivers door. "Well, Dean's the one that usually drives and takes care of it. Used to be our dad's though."

Sam pulled out of the small motel lot and the three hit the road. Reid wasn't fast enough to call shotgun, so Emily occupied the passenger seat. The car was silent for a few minutes.

"Does your dad hunt too? He seems more off the grid than you and Dean, I imagine he's had more experience," said Emily.

Sam kept his eyes on the road, but gave a smile that looked... sad. "We've been doing this as a family ever since I was a baby. Dean mostly hunted with him when I was at college, but he went missing and that's why Dean came to me."

So Dean was probably closer to John than Sam was. "Well, did you find him?" Emily asked.

"Yeah..." Sam's eyes started to go distant. "More like he found us. He was apparently getting close to the demon that killed our mom- that's why he started hunting in the first place. We almost got it. Dad died a few months ago."

"Oh." That explains the complete dead end Garcia found. "I'm so sorry," she said heartfeltly. 

"Did you say demon?" asked Reid from the back. 

Sam glanced at him in his rear view mirror. "Yeah. This ones a special demon though. Higher rank or something like that. He killed my mom and my girlfriend, and I'm pretty sure he had something to do with dad's death." He scoffed to himself and shook his head. "You guys probably don't even believe me, but demons aren't our immediate problem right now."

Emily shrugged. "Makes more sense than the fires being accidental, on the same date too."

When Sam didn't answer, Reid asked, "How do you kill a demon?"

Sam sighed, "You can't, as far as we know. You can only exorcise them. There is a certain colt that can apparently kill any monster, but we lost it. You know, I'm surprised you haven't run into any demons, with your line of work. Or maybe you have."

"What? How would we know?" Emily asked.

"Have you ever had a case where the murderer didn't remember anything when you questioned him, as if he was an entirely different person than someone who committed the crime?" Sam asked.

"No, but I only joined a couple years ago," said Emily.

"Come to think of it," said Reid. "We had a case like that almost four years ago. We profiled the unsub to be extremely muscular and have anger issues, but when we caught him red handed, he seemed to be fully unaware of what happened and how he got there. He was also extremely underweight, and the unsub managed to break the victims bones with his bare hands."

Sam nodded. "That was probably a demon. They have great strength no matter how built their vessel is. Profilers, huh?"

Emily nodded. "We work in the Behavioral Analysis Unit. I gotta hand it to you Sam, I almost got fooled with your performance in the interrogation room if I hadn't done my research. I've never seen someone lie that well."

Sam laughed out a short breath. "I'm flattered, but not all of it was a lie."

Emily thought back, fit in the puzzle pieces Sam gave her. His emotion about his girlfriend had to be genuine, now that she knows he had nothing to do with her death. Along with betraying his brother. They were definitely tight knit, and the fear he had was more losing someone he cared about than someone who was in control of him.

** NOVEMBER 4 - 7:39 PM **

"We're here," said Sam, and he pulled the car into an alleyway. Instead of walking directly into the run down building, Sam went over to the back of the car. When he popped the trunk, Spencer didn't believe what he saw.

"Jesus..." muttered Emily. There were weapons on weapons in the trunk of the Impala, from shotguns to machetes. Spencer figured there were many more monsters out there in the world, and if you hunted them, you needed all you can get.

"I'm assuming our weapons won't work against ghosts," said Emily as Sam reached for a shotgun.

"Nope," he said, and handed the gun to her. "These are just for warding them off temporarily, though. Rock salt shells do the trick." He handed another shotgun to Spencer. "It's only one ghost, but you can't be too safe." Sam grabbed a couple more things and shut the trunk. He looked at Spencer. "Y'know, I wouldn't have imagined you as an field agent, no offense."

"I have an eidetic memory and a 187 IQ. I'd say I'm more at the station than on the field. But, minus Garcia, we're all required a gun."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "Damn. Did you go to Harvard or something?"

"Caltech. I got my undergrad at 16. Where do you think Claire's body is buried?" Looking around as they entered the building, Spencer noted how abandoned it was. Tarps hanging, items strewn on the ground, walls falling apart. They all shined their flashlights around, not sure what they were looking for.

"I don't know, but basement's usually a good place to start," said Sam, and headed towards some stairs. As they descended, the air got more musty. Spencer saw storage shelves covered in dust and junk, cobwebs covering old wine bottles and jars. Emily went off to the left to search more and Sam went up another set of stairs he found. Spencer walked around, looking for any signs of disorder or human activity. He pointed his flashlight at the ground and found a bloody rag, but decided not to touch it. When he looked back up, he heard something clatter behind him. He's not going to lie, it did startle him a bit. The agent turned only to find nothing behind him. "Emily?" he called out. "Sam?" No answer. On edge, Spencer turned back around and gasped.

Claire's ghost was standing directly in front of him.

Spencer's heart was hammering against his chest. He's seen plenty of dead bodies in his life time, but he's never seen one standing up and staring back at him. He held up his shotgun, but didn't shoot remembering Emily saying the ghost seemed like it wanted to communicate instead of attack. The ghost opened her mouth, but instead of talking, choking and gurgling sounds came out as blood flowed out of the cut in her throat. She stepped toward Spencer who responded by taking a step back.

"Sam," he called out, hoping he could hear him from upstairs. "Sam!" Claire started to reach her arm toward Spencer as she walked closer. "SAM!"

To his relief, Spencer heard sets of footsteps getting closer. He turned to his right as Sam ran up to him with Emily in tow.

"What? What happened?" he asked, but when Spencer looked back at the ghost, it was gone.

"She... sh-she was..." Spencer was still catching his breath.

"Where?!" Sam shined his flashlight around the room. 

"She was right here," he spit out.

"Are you okay?" Emily asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Spencer nodded as Sam asked, "Did she attack you?"

"No," Spencer took another breath. "She was just reaching out to me, trying to say something." He shined his flashlight up. "She was over there by the window."

The three of them walked towards the high window, mostly covered by boxes on top of a shelf. "Hold on," said Emily, looking up at the window. Spencer followed her gaze and also noticed the lettering printed on the window. "Here, help me move this," she said to the boys.

Spencer and Emily started to push the large shelf, and it was lighter than Spencer thought. Until he realized it was because Sam pulled the whole shelf to the side with one hand. When the words on the window were visible, everything clicked into place.

"It's our little mystery word," said Emily.

Sam turned around to where the light was shining on the wall. The shadows read "ASHLAND" with the word "SUPER" below it, but because it was so run down only "SUP" was visible.

"Now the extra letters make sense," Sam said, also feeling the realization set in. Spencer looked back at Sam and it looked as if a light bulb went off above his head. He took some gadget out of his pocket and extended the antenna. Spencer heard electronic whirring.

"What's that?" Emily asked.

Sam held out the gadget and started to slowly walk toward the wall the light was shining on. "Spirits and certain remains give off electromagnetic frequencies."

"So if Claire's body were here, that would indicate it," Spencer concluded.

"Yeah, that's the theory," said Sam. When they got to the wall, the gadget gave off a high pitch beep and the lights at the top lit up red. The three looked at each other knowingly. Sam picked up some tool he found nearby and used it to break the deteriorating brick wall. After he created a decent sized hole, he looked in with his flashlight.

"Oh yeah, there's definitely something in here," he said.

Spencer and Emily moved in closer out of interest. "Y'know, this is bothering me," said Sam. He started breaking the rest of the wall with his elbow.

"Well you _are_ digging up a corpse," Emily said sarcastically.

"No, not that," said Sam, not noticing her tone. "That's, uh, pretty par for the course actually."

"Well, then what?" she asked.

"It's just," Sam hit into the brick again. "I mean, no vengeful spirit I've ever tussled with wanted to be wasted, so why the hell would Claire lead us to her remains? It doesn't make any sense." Sam hit the wall a few more times, creating a large hole someone could step in. 

"Alright, help me out here," he said. He, Spencer, and Emily reached in and pulled out a large cloth wrapped around something the size of, well, the size of a body. As they set it on the ground, they all braced for what was inside. Sam took out his switchblade and cut the ropes holding everything together. He folded over the tarp, and sure enough, a withering skeleton with long blonde hair lay before them. Spencer scrunched up his face when the smell hit. The fact that she's been dead for 9 months with no one looking for her makes Spencer think of all the other missing people out there. If Pete Sheridan had anything to do with this, he hoped that their team would find enough solid proof to arrest him. 

Emily reached out and touched the corpse's hand, and Spencer realized she was actually touching a thick iron shackle that was around Claire's wrists.

"Yeah, they'd be bruised just like yours," Sam said softly.

Something else on the body caught Spencer's eye. A glimmer from a small piece of metal, a necklace, he realized. He picked up the charm and inspected it. 

"What, do you recognize that?" Sam asked.

When Spencer didn't answer, Emily said, "Reid, you're making that face again, spit it out."

Spencer twisted his lips. "I've seen this before, but I just can't remember where."

Emily blinked. "Y- you can't remember? Since when does _that_ happen to you?"

"Our brain visually takes in more than we think. I've probably seen this necklace somewhere recently, but not actually consciously noticed it. I..." He closed his eyes. "I'm pretty sure I saw it at the police station."

Emily raised her eyebrows, "Well, we should hurry back, it's getting late anyway."

They stood up. "What did you tell your unit chief by the way? Does he know you're here?" Sam asked.

"I told him I wasn't feeling well and Emily offered to drive me to the motel," answered Spencer.

As they walked back to the car, Emily raised an eyebrow and leaned over to Sam. "Reid get sick quite often, but he's not too fond of sharing with the class. Leaves us all worrying about him."

Sam grinned at the remark. "I think I know what you mean."

The ride back to the motel was silent for the most part. Emily stared out the window while Spencer sat in his own thoughts. Near the end of the ride, Sam asked a question.

"Hey, uh, Agent Reid? If you're so smart, how come you didn't crack the code in Dean's note?"

Spencer opened his mouth to answer but Emily beat him to it. "Cuz the only television he watches is Doctor Who."

"Hey!" Spencer yelled defensively as he heard Sam chuckle. "I watch Star Trek too."

Sam's eyes met with Spencer's in the rear view mirror. "We make mistakes, but we're human," Sam said.

Spencer grinned, understanding the reference. "And maybe that's the word that best describes us," he responded.

Emily looked between the two of them before she leaned her head back on the glass and gazed out. "Oh god, there are two of them."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally got chapter 4 up! And it's a LONG ONE!!
> 
> This fic will probably have one or two chapters left, the story is almost wrapped up. Or should I say, THIS story. After this one is finished, I may take a little break to continue my other fics on here (if you're a marvel fan check them out).
> 
> Also I was so happy to find out Reid was canonically a Trekkie (I went back to season 6 and found a scene of him ranting). And how would Sam not be a Trekkie with all that time watching the motel TV's as a kid?
> 
> Please leave kudos and comments!!! I love seeing your feedback, it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.


	5. Chapter 5

** NOVEMBER 4 - 9:06 PM **

"I assume you're feeling better, Reid."

Back at the precinct, Emily and Reid stopped in their tracks when they heard Hotch's voice from behind them. It's not like they snuck out in the first place, they had a pretty valid excuse. But Emily was starting to have her doubts when she heard Hotch's tone.

"I- yeah, I do actually," Reid said. The two of them turned to face their boss. "I think it was just a stomach bug. Pretty sure I got it out of my system, Emily helped a lot"

The two agents gave their most convincing smiles. Emily can see Hotch profiling them, obviously not 100% buying it. He opened his mouth, then hesitated. Right when Emily thought he was going to call the two of them out, he just said, "Good, now get back to work. Not much has happened, but the others will fill you in on anything. We're still looking for Sam; Morgan and Rossi volunteered to help out on the search."

Once Hotch left, Emily and Reid relaxed and continued walking. 

"He didn't buy it, Emily."

"Hey, we don't know that. I don't like lying to him either, but we have a mission right now that could crack this case. I'll look into Claire Becker, you look for that necklace-"

Emily noticed Reid wasn't by her side anymore. She turned back and saw him frozen, staring off to the side.

"Reid? What is it? What happened?" Emily asked as she approached Reid's side.

He subtlety pointed in the direction he was looking. Emily followed his gaze, and saw what had stopped Reid in his tracks.

Detective Ballard was leaning over a desk about twenty feet from where the two Federal Agents were standing. She was going through some files, but that's not what had caught Reid's eye. Dangling from her neck was a gold necklace, perfectly identical to the necklace that had been found on Claire's body.

"Found the necklace," muttered Reid.

* * *

They stood there for a second longer, then Emily made up her mind. She took a step forward and put her hand on Reid's shoulder, signaling him to stay put. She thought about what she was going to say as she got closer to Detective Ballard, and put on her game face.

"No word on Sam, huh," said Emily as she leaned on the desk next to Ballard. Detective Ballard looked up at who was speaking to her and sighed.

"It's my fault. I should've made sure someone was watching him," she said in frustration. "The confession was a distraction, I just know it."

"Hey, we'll find him. A man as tall as big-foot can't be hard to spot." Emily said that to lighten the mood, but in reality she knows if Sam doesn't want to be found, he most likely won't be.

Ballard chuckled. "True. At least we still got the dangerous one, right?"

"Yeah..." responded Emily, urging to change the subject. She waited a few beats to not sound rushed, then finally got to the chase. "Pretty necklace, by the way."

Ballard touched the charm of her necklace and smiled. "Thank you, it's one of a kind. A gift."

"Mmmm, boyfriend?" Emily asked slyly. Ballard's smile told Emily that she guessed correctly. "You're lucky, you know. Romance isn't easy when you have a job like this."

"Well, it's a good thing he understands this job pretty well."

Emily raised her eyebrows. "He's a cop too? That _is_ lucky. Now, what would take the cake is if he worked with you," she added in jokingly.

Ballard's face turned from bashful to guilty, and Emily knew she guessed right again.

" _No_ , really? Oh, you gotta tell me now." Emily started to go full chick gossip mode. She relaxed her posture and leaned more on the desk.

"I- no." Ballard smiled and waved her hands. 

"Oh, come ooooonnn," Emily whined. "You can't leave me hanging like that!" Emily looked around the precinct and nodded over to a lanky blond officer to their left. "Is it him?"

Ballard looked at the officer and sighed. "Fine. _No_ , it's not him. It's P- Detective Sheridan. A few months now. He's a great guy."

If only she knew.

"That's sweet, I'm happy for you," Emily lied with a smile. 

Ballard got back to sifting through her files."And what about you? Anyone special in your life?" she asked without looking up.

"Heh, no, not at the moment. This job is pretty... time consuming." Emily got the information she needed, but kept the conversation going to take out suspicion. She nodded over to the papers Ballard had. "Are those files on the case?"

"Not exactly..." Ballard responded, sounding distracted. "You know, something Dean said caught my attention. Ashland _is_ a street, and it's way too familiar to me. I feel like it's a part of one of our cold cases- aha!" She held up an open file folder. "Almost a year ago, we had a druggie working undercover for us. Claire Becker, poor girl." Emily looked at the file over Ballads shoulder. "She disappeared, along with some missing heroine from lockup. She was last seen on Ashland street. Some coincidence, right?"

But by then Emily was already heading back to Reid, who was standing not too far away. When she approached him, he started to speak before Emily could tell him what she'd found.

"Emily, I don't see Detective Sheridan anywhere."

"We need to find Hotch. I think I know who killed Claire."

The two caught their boss as he was walking into the conference room. "Hotch," Emily said. "We need to talk to you, about the case."

"Alone," added Reid urgently.

Hotch, working in his head what was going on with these to agents, led the way into the empty conference room and closed the door. "We're fine in here, JJ is working with the press right now on finding Sam." He sat down on the edge of the table. "Why do you want to talk to me alone?" he asked steadily.

The two agents hesitated, realizing they're not sure where to start. Reid seemed to find his words first.

"Dean mentioned Ashland in his confession, and it _is_ a street. Now I'm not sure about all of the ghost sightings, the supernatural is a tricky subject in itself. Y'know in history, ghosts-"

"Reid," Hotch interrupted.

Reid caught himself. "Right. Anyway, I decided to look into Ashland, if it had any particular importance, and sure enough, it's connected to a Metro P.D. cold case from almost a year ago. Claire Becker, 28 years old, was a police informant for the dealing of heroine. She's been arrested a few times, but officially disappeared in late February of this year."

"We decided to go to the last known address of her disappearence on Ashland street," said Emily. "I'm.. sorry Hotch. We lied to you."

Hotch was silent for a few seconds. "Why did you lie?" he asked coldly. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Emily took a deep breath. "Yes. But we will tell you everything once the case is over, I promise. It won't happen again Hotch."

Hotch considered this for a moment, then exhaled. "Fine. Keep going. Did you find anything?"

"We found her body," Reid said softly. "It was hidden in the run down building. But what's important is what we found on her body."

"A necklace," Emily continued.

Hotch looked confused. "A necklace?"

Emily nodded. "Reid said he recognized it, and traced it back to here. When we got back, we saw Detective Ballard."

"She's wearing the exact same necklace," said Reid.

Hotch thought about that. "How do you know it was a direct connection? Couldn't they have just bought the same necklace?"

Emily shook her head. "No, Hotch. I talked to her and she said it was custom made, one of a kind. She said it was a gift from Detective Sheridan. And when I looked at the file of the case, Sheridan was the lead Detective in charge.'"

Hotch was clicking the pieces into place. "Are you saying he killed Claire? How is this related to our current case?"

Emily continued. "There's more, I-"

She was interrupted by a cell phone ring. Hotch reached for his cell in his pocket and put it on speaker. "Garcia, got anything?"

 _"Oh, you have no idea. This is like,_ bad _bad stuff. Like movie villain bad."_

"What did you find?" Hotch asked, looking at the two agents standing in front of him.

 _"You know those unknown sums of money in Tony and your detective's bank accounts? It turns out they worked on a case together about a year ago. What helped a lot actually was Emily and Reid, they-"_ She stopped short, realizing what she had said.

"It's okay, Garcia," Emily said through the phone. "We told Hotch about Claire, he knows."

They heard Garcia's sigh of relief. _"Oh thank god. I felt really bad about keeping a secret from you Hotch, I'm sorry I love you."_

Hotch gave Emily and Reid the stare since he found out now three of his agents were hiding something from him. "It's fine, Garcia. What about the money?"

_"Ah, right. So I found out Sheridan and Giles were both working on the Claire Becker case. But what's suspicious is that the amount of money in their bank accounts are consistent to the black market price for heroine."_

"Hotch," Emily said, "Ballard told me there was some missing heroine from lockup. They never found out who stole it."

"I think Sheridan was our unsub all along," Reid said aloud.

Suddenly the door to the conference room burst open and JJ rushed in looking worried.

"Guys, Dean's gone. An officer told me Sheridan apparently got a call for a transfer. He took Dean and just left."

Hotch stood up, now angry. "There's no order for a transfer. Did he take a county vehicle?" When JJ nodded he spoke back into the phone. "You got that Garcia?"

_"Yep. Tracking the vehicle now." *Click*_

The four agents headed out to their cars. "JJ, call Morgan and fill him in. Reid, go with JJ."

Emily followed Hotch to their cars. As Hotch pulled out to the street, Garcia rang back.

_"Found them boss. They seem to be in the middle of the woods. I sent all of you his coordinates."_

"Thanks Garcia," responded Hotch.

_"Be safe guys." *Click.*_

Emily got out her phone and looked up their location. "They're not far. Do you think he's going to kill Dean?"

"Probably, to frame him. Then he'll just say he was trying to escape and that he shot Dean in self defense." He glanced at his phone and sped up. "Morgan and Rossi are almost there. We should be close behind them."

Soon the city turned to woods. There was only so far Hotch could drive, so they parked and pulled out their flashlights. As they walked, they heard voices. Both agents pulled their guns out.

"Pete, put the gun down!" Emily heard Morgan's yell as he came into view.

"I don't know how you found me, but I don't think that's gonna happen," Sheridan snarked, Emily now seeing his gun pointing at Dean. He was kneeling on the ground with his cuffed hands raised. He was wearing a poker face, but Emily could see the slight panic in his tense body language.

"Sheridan, put the gun down," Emily repeated as they got into view. Pete slightly looked toward her and Hotch, but didn't move the gun.

"Oh, there's more-"

"Pete, we know about Claire," Emily interrupted. She felt victory when his gaze fell cold. But not for long.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said looking back at Dean.

"Put the gun _down_ ," Hotch yelled this time.

"No, I don't think so."

"Why are you doing this?" Emily asked. _Get him to talk about it,_ she thought. _Bring out his emotions._

"I didn't do anything-"

"Oh, it's a little late for that, don't you think?" Emily interrupted again. She could see that Dean was confused about what she was talking about, but that was probably the least of his worries at the moment.

Sheridan looked at Emily. "It wasn't my fault," he said. "Claire was gonna turn me in, I had no choice!"

Morgan and Rossi looked over at Emily, probably as confused as Dean. But Emily kept talking.

"And Tony? Karen?"

Pete clenched his jaw knowing that he had no choice. "Same thing! Tony scrubbed the money, then he got skittish, and then _he_ wanted to come clean. I'm sure he told Karen everything! It was a mess, I had to clean it up!"

As Pete was confessing, Dean looked at Emily in surprise, his eyes half saying "what the fuck?" and "how are we gonna get out of this". Emily hoped the look she casted him was reassuring enough.

"There's no way out of this Pete. You have to turn yourself in," Rossi said.

Pete looked at him now. "Don't you see? This Dean kid's a fuckin' gift! We can pin the whole thing on him! No trial, nothing. Just one more dead scumbag!"

"Hey!" Dean complained in protest to the insult.

Pete brought his attention back on Dean, who tensed up again. "No one will question it. He's already a wanted murderer, why not two birds with one stone?"

Pete readied his gun. "Pete, no!" Morgan yelled.

Then came the gunshot.

* * *

It all happened so fast. Pete readied his gun, finger on the trigger. 

Then _**BAM!**_

Emily managed to shoot Sheridan in the shoulder. Then all hell broke loose.

Dean rolled away as fast as he could. Morgan, Rossi, and Hotch ran to Sheridan, guns still drawn. Sheridan hit the ground in pain, but still managed to struggle when Morgan tried to take his gun and cuff him.

Emily ran to Dean, who jumped at first, but calmed (as much as he could) once he saw who it was.

"Come on," Emily said. She pulled Dean up to his feet and before leaving, looked over at Hotch. They made eye contact, and Hotch assessed the situation as Emily started moving.

"So, he was the killer all along, huh," Dean said slightly out of breath once they were out of earshot.

"Yep," Emily said. "Turns out the ghost was just warning us."

Dean thought about that one for a second. "Huh, weird. Usually the ghost is the one wanting revenge and doing the killing."

Emily almost tripped over a root. She chuckled, "Your brother said the same thing."

"Sammy?" Dean's tone hinted concern. "Is he alright?"

"Yeah, he's fine. Cooped up in the motel room like you said. He helped us find Claire's body." They finally got to a clearing near some buildings. The two looked at each other.

"I think you're good from here. "Your motel isn't too far if I remember."

Dean nodded. He reached in his pocket and took out what looked like a torn piece of lined paper. But as he handed it to Emily, his hand stopped short. 

Dean looked down at his cuffs. "Don't suppose you could help me out with these?"

"Sadly, no," she responded. Dean gave her the piece of paper, and when she looked down at it, she found scribbled handwriting instead of clean print.

_Call this number if you find a monster under your bed_

_**866-907-3235** _

Emily raised her eyebrow. "A business card?"

Dean shrugged, like giving her his personal tracking information wasn't a big deal. "Figured you might run into something like this again, with your profession. Call if it gets bad."

Emily nodded slowly and placed the paper in her pocket as she started to walk back into the woods, she said, "Nice slogan, by the way."

She thought Dean almost rolled his eyes. "Sam's idea. If we ever make a real business card."

Emily raised her eyebrows. "You guys really want to do that?"

Dean scoffed, "Of course not, but you get bored sometimes."

Emily turned back around and shook her head, smiling. The two brothers were definitely not who their file said, and definitely didn't have a dominant/submissive relationship like most unsubs and their partners have. These two are just brothers, and that's all they really have. Emily turned around to see if she could make out Dean through the trees one last time. But he was already gone.

**NOVEMBER 5 - 10:01 AM**

Hotch let the team come in a little late that morning. After Detective Pete Sheridan was arrested, the team flew home on the jet. Emily had told Hotch that she had chased after Dean, but he got away. He _was_ a pretty fast runner. Hotch knew it was an excuse, but he just gave her a look that just said "tomorrow". Now Emily stood in Hotch's office, dread squeezing her chest.

"Sit down," Hotch offered, nodding to the chair opposite of his desk. Once she did, Hotch sat up, hands resting on the table. His posture told Emily he was going to listen and do nothing else. He looked her in the eye.

"Tell me everything."

So she did. Almost everything. She talked about the words dana shulps on the computer, the bathroom, Sam, the body. She included Reid in her story as he was technically an eye witness, backing up her story. The only thing she left out was Dean giving her his number. Emily put that piece of paper in her home safe right when she stepped foot in her apartment. She hadn't even told Reid about it.

When Emily finished her story, she added, "I know, it's very hard to believe, and I sound crazy. But I have physical proof."

She pulled up her sleeves to reveal her wrists. The bruises had faded a bit, but were still there. "These appeared when I saw Claire's ghost. They were also on Karen and Tony's bodies. And when we found Claire's body, there were shackles around her wrists. They would've caused the same bruising."

Hotch was silent. He moved his eyes away from Emily and down at his desk. Emily knows this was a lot, and he might even not believe her. The longer Emily waited for Hotch to say someting, the more she expected the next words to come out of his mouth were "You're fired".

But he said this instead:

"When I was nine, my grandmother died. I wasn't old enough to really take it in, but my parents told me that she wasn't coming back." He paused. "The night before her funeral, I was sure she was standing next to my bed, singing my favorite lullaby. As I got older, I told myself it was a dream or some kind of hallucination, but I never forgot about it. Now, I'm not so sure what to believe."

He looked up at Emily. "You will never speak of this case again, do you hear? I'll tell Reid the same. Sam an Dean Winchester escaped, and that's the full story."

Emily was speechless. She couldn't believe what Hotch was saying. He really believed her. And she was _not_ losing her job. Hotch seemed to note her surprise because he raised an eyebrow and said, "Get back to work. Those papers aren't going to write themselves."

Emily could only nod as she rose out of the chair and left Hotch's office.

** JANUARY 25 - 9:44 PM **

Emily threw another piece of popcorn in her mouth. She got home from work not too long ago having finished up a report about the serial killer they had just caught. Emily was slouched on her couch, channel surfing for something good. She reached for her glass of wine on the small table next to the couch when she heard something fall to the ground.

Emily snapped her head to the right where the sound came from and saw a black mass of fur. "Sergio!" she complained. Emily picked up the glass (thankfully still intact) and went to refill it, also grabbing a few paper towels and cleaning spray. As she went to soak up the puddle, she noticed that the news channel was left on. But as Emily grabbed the remote to change the channel, the words **"BREAKING NEWS"** flashed on the screen.

_"We're here downtown in front of the city bank of Milwakee, and though a short exchange of weapons fire occored just minutes ago, Police and S.W.A.T. teams maintain position as we enter the third hour of this intense stand off."_

Woah. Emily turned up the volume.

The camera showed the reporter talking. _"Authorities estimate as many as ten hostages are being held inside the bank. No word as yet on the identitiy of the suspects or-"_

The reporter was interrupted by shouting, and the camera zoomed into the entrance of the bank. Emily was glued to the screen, hoping the situation doesn't have a bad outcome. Her team's been in a hostage position before, and it isn't pretty. She watched intensely when the bank doors actually opened. Shouting could be heard from the figures coming out of the bank.

A higher pitched panicked male voice yelled, _"Don't shoot! Don't shoot!"_

Then a second gruffer voice yelled out, _"No no no no no, don't even think about it! Get the hell back!"_

The second voice came from the man who was leading the hostage outside. Emily thought either he was another hostage or one of the unsubs. But when the camera zoomed on their faces, Emily's jaw dropped to the ground.

She grabbed her phone and speed dialed the first person she thought of.

Two rings. _"Hello?"_

"Reid! Turn on channel 8 NOW."

 _"Woah! Okay, hold on a sec."_ There were a few seconds of silence where Reid was tuning in to the channel. _"Hostages? This looks bad. But why are you- oh my god. Is that-"_

"Dean Winchester," Emily said, eyes still glued to the screen. Dean was already back in the building, but the news had plastered his face on the screen, marking him as a possible suspect.

_"Oh, this is not good. Emily, you don't think-"_

"They can't have. Whatever's happening in that bank, I feel like only they can clean it up."

There was silence on the other end as the two listened to the news and looked at Dean's face. There were many things causing Emily to worry about the current situation, and many questions bombarding her mind, but there was one sticking out.

How the hell were the Winchester's gonna get out of this one?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, after months of waiting (procrastinating), the story is finally finished! Here are a few things I have to say:
> 
> First, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Thank you for reading my fic, for leaving kudos, for commenting, sharing, and for clicking on it in the first place! I really appreciate every reader I have, and I hope you enjoyed this story.
> 
> Now, if you are unsettled by the cliffhanger at the end of this chapter, all I can tell you is to watch 2.12 of Supernatural. It will tell you all you need to know :)
> 
> And if you're sad that the adventures of Sam, Dean, and the BAU have come to an end, worry not! I have two more stories planned in my head that will be a continuation of this one, and will be original! I don't know when I will start on it, as I have school and other stories to finish and start, but it's going to happen! Hopefully sooner than later.
> 
> Also, if you want to connect or whatever, my twitter is @seui_ _ _ , I just post multi-fandom stuff and occasional art


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